YOUR VOICE: Blame higher courts for death penalty decision

I understand the outrage from the community regarding the decision that Pierce County Prosecutor Gerry Horne made not to seek the death penalty for Calvin Finley, who shot and killed armored car guard Kurt Husted.

Should Finley die for his despicable act? Yes, he should. However, in defense of Horne’s decision, beneath the landscape of the higher courts regarding capital cases and appeals, Finley most likely would never be executed. The cost of appeals would be higher than housing him in prison for life.

The process to get a capital case to trial these days can take three or more years and then up to 20 years of appeals. This intricate process takes a heavy toll on co-victims.

In the past, Horne has been aggressive in seeking the death penalty in aggravated murder cases. However, things have changed in the last few years.

The higher courts have been sending more and more capital cases back for retrial for trivial reasons. Victims’ families then have to go through the agonizing experience of a retrial. In addition, it’s very hard to get a capital conviction on a retrial.

The problem does not lie at the prosecutor’s office level. The problem is that higher courts continue to give more and more rights to criminals.

Horne did not arbitrarily make the plea decision. His staff, Finley’s defense attorneys and Husted’s family were all involved in the decision-making process.

As the director of a community-based victim-advocacy organization, our office has worked with Horne and hundreds of families who had a loved one murdered in Pierce County. Horne has done a stellar job at the helm of the prosecutor’s office.

Lew Cox is executive director of Violent Crime Victim Services in Tacoma.