A New Death Sentence and a New Reason for Abolition, Now!

Second jury, same verdict
ADAM LYNN; The News Tribune
A jury deliberated less than a hour Tuesday before deciding that one of Pierce County’s most ruthless killers should be sentenced to death for raping, robbing and murdering a Tacoma grandmother a decade ago.
It was the second time a Pierce County jury has said Cecil Emile Davis should die for killing Yoshiko Couch, 65, in her East Side home in January 1997, a crime that shocked the community with its appalling brutality.

Another jury convicted Davis, now 47, of aggravated first-degree murder in the case in 1998. It took that jury barely 90 minutes to conclude that Davis should be executed.

A judge formally imposed the death sentence, but the state Supreme Court overturned it three years ago, saying a juror might have been predisposed to send Davis to death row because he saw the defendant in shackles during trial.

The high court left Davis’ conviction intact but sent the case back to Pierce County so another jury could decide if he should be executed.

It took the second jury about 45 minutes Tuesday to say that he should.

“We’re pleased,” said deputy prosecutor John Neeb, who along with special deputy prosecutor John Hillman made the state’s case. “We thought the first death sentence was legitimate, and we’re glad this jury re-imposed it.”

Davis showed little emotion Tuesday when the jury’s verdict was announced.

Defense attorney Ronald Ness, who along with John Cross represented Davis, said they all were disappointed with the outcome.

“I’m not sure there’s much more that needs to be said,” Ness said.

The nine women and three men of the jury declined to comment as they left court.

But their swift decision showed they agreed with Neeb’s contention that Davis is the “worst of the worst” and “richly deserves” the death sentence.

Couch is not the only woman Davis has been convicted of killing. In November, a jury found him guilty of second-degree murder for stomping to death Jane Hungerford-Trapp, in April 1996.

“The truth is the defendant has left pain and misery wherever he goes,” Hillman said.

In the Couch case, evidence showed Davis raped the woman with an object of some kind before throwing her into a partially filled bathtub and smothering her with towels soaked in a toxic solvent.

He then tried to clean up the crime scene and Couch’s body with a household cleanser before stealing the wedding ring from her finger, the cash from her purse, and meat and beer from her kitchen, Neeb said during his closing argument a few hours before Tuesday’s verdict.

Her disabled husband was in the house the whole time, unable to help her.

“This crime is as bad, as horrifying, as awful as it can get,” Neeb said. There is no punishment appropriate for Davis but death, the deputy prosecutor added.

“There are some crimes so bad, some people so bad, that anything less just wouldn’t be right,” Neeb said.

Ness disagreed.

The defense attorney told the jury that his client was beaten as a child and pointed out that three psychiatrists who testified during trial diagnosed Davis with a host of mental troubles, including post traumatic stress disorder and a cognitive disorder with psychotic features.

Davis also has an IQ in the low 70s, which is close to the “retardation line,” Ness said.

“Are those mitigating circumstances? Of course they are,” the attorney said in arguing for a life sentence without the possibility of parole.

Ness also asked jurors to show mercy on Davis.

He read a line from Shakespeare’s play, “The Merchant of Venice,” where the character Portia says, “Earthly power doth then show likest God’s when mercy seasons justice.”

“We ask you to do the right thing,” Ness said. “Consider mercy. Consider the mitigating circumstances.”

Given a chance to rebut Ness’s closing argument, Hillman reminded jurors what happened to Couch and to see Davis for who he really is.

“He killed her because he wanted to, because he felt like it,” Hillman said. “That’s who Cecil Davis is.”

Superior Court Judge Frederick Fleming is scheduled to formally impose the death sentence Friday.