Judge: State Should Decide Rupe Case

A decision on whether to open the medical records of former death row inmate Mitchell Edward Rupe should be made in state court, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly directed the matter be handled in Thurston County Superior Court, which in January delayed a hearing on the issue pending his decision. Rupe had asked that the matter be handled in federal court.

“This case involves state law issues which should be determined in state court,” Zilly wrote. “The court finds no basis for federal jurisdiction.”

State Attorney General Christine Gregoire said she was pleased with Zilly’s ruling, and that the state would ask the Thurston County court for an expedited hearing. That could take place in a week or so, she said.

The state wants to open Rupe’s medical records to answer questions about the convicted killer’s health. There have been reports that he may be in need of a liver transplant.

Rupe, who killed two tellers during a 1981 bank robbery in Olympia, contends he is entitled to the privacy of closed medical records.

But attorneys for the state note that he used matters of health, particularly his obesity, to argue in 1994 that at 400 pounds he was too heavy to hang.

Zilly at that time overturned Rupe’s death sentence on grounds that some evidence about a witness was improperly excluded from the penalty phase of his trial. But he also said that under the state’s protocol for hanging, Rupe might be decapitated, which would be unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment.

The state has appealed to reinstate Rupe’s death sentence.