The State of Washington, Respondent v. Charles R. Campbell, Appellant

Summary

The Washington Supreme Court, sitting en banc, affirmed Charles Campbell's convictions for three counts of aggravated first degree murder and his death sentence, rejecting speedy-trial, prosecutorial-misconduct, discovery, lost-evidence, confrontation, search-and-seizure, and chain-of-custody challenges. The court upheld the constitutionality of prosecutorial discretion under RCW 10.95.040 against equal protection, separation of powers, and vagueness attacks, found jury instruction 7 on the statutory mitigating factors adequate, completed the three-part RCW 10.95.130 mandatory review, and held the death penalty is not cruel punishment under Wash. Const. art. 1, sec. 14. Justice Utter, concurring in part and dissenting in part (joined by Justice Dolliver), would have held the capital scheme void for vagueness and violative of equal protection because of standardless, unreviewable prosecutorial discretion; Justice Pearson (joined by Chief Justice Williams) shared the vagueness view and would have remanded for life without parole, while Justice Rosellini (joined by Justices Dore and Cunningham, J. Pro Tem.) wrote separately defending the statutory scheme.