The State of Washington, Respondent v. Brian Keith Lord, Appellant

Summary

The court affirmed Lord's convictions and death sentence, holding that the challenged scientific evidence, summary charts, physical evidence, photographs, instructions, and penalty-phase evidence were properly admitted or nonprejudicial. It also rejected Lord's due process, sufficiency, ineffective-assistance, prosecutorial-misconduct, and juvenile-conviction challenges. The court held that uncertainty in expert conclusions affected weight rather than admissibility and adopted a balancing test for rebuttal evidence in capital sentencing. Justice Utter, dissenting, would have reversed the guilt determination and vacated the death sentence, while Chief Justice Dore, concurring in the result of the dissent, would have reversed and remanded for a new trial.