PORT ANGELES — No ruling was made today on a stay of execution for convicted Sequim double-murderer Darold Ray Stenson, who has been on death row in Walla Walla for more than a decade.
The earliest that Clallam County Superior Court Judge Ken Williams will rule on whether or not to lift the stay he imposed last November would be Thursday, although that appears unlikely.
“I will try to get through these [legal] tests as quickly as possible,” said Williams, who will be out of town for part of next week.
“I’m not going to schedule it at this point.”
Williams imposed the stay one week prior to Stenson’s scheduled Dec. 3 execution at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla for further DNA testing after a new witness emerged.
Stenson was convicted in 1994 for killing his wife and business partner at his Dungeness Valley exotic bird farm in 1993.
Special Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Pamela Loginsky argued today that the stay of execution should be lifted, clearing the way for Stenson’s execution.
“The state believes the public interest in carrying out the sentence is manifest at this point,” Loginsky argued in the 90-minute hearing.
She said the case has been argued and appealed in numerous court jurisdictions, including the U.S. Supreme Court twice.
“We ask that you terminate the stay of execution,” Loginsky said.
Defense attorney Sheryl McCloud said lifting the stay would be “at best premature.”
Even if the court denied all of Stenson’s motions for further DNA testing, he would appeal to the state Supreme Court.
“We asked to enter a stay of execution pending our appeal of some of these court orders,” McCloud said.
She said lifting the stay would be difficult on the victim’s families and Stenson’s family.
Separate stays of execution — one in Clallam County and one in U.S. District Court — were granted in late November.
The execution was canceled Dec. 1.
The state Supreme Court later upheld the Clallam County decision.
