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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

New Trial Ruled In ‘95 Murder Appeals Court Finds Faulty Jury Instructions In Birnel’s Conviction For Slaying Of His Wife

A Spokane man convicted of killing his wife in a bloody knife battle in 1995 deserves a new trial, the state Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday.

The court said Rick Birnel’s November 1995 conviction for second-degree murder was tainted by faulty jury instructions that interfered with his right to a fair trial.

The decision announced Tuesday means Birnel will likely face another Spokane County murder trial for the death of Cookie Birnel, who had been his wife for 13 years and the mother of five children.

Birnel has remained free on an appeals bond pending the court’s decision.

Superior Court Judge Kathleen O’Connor had sentenced Birnel to five years in prison for the murder, a decision that inflamed local women’s rights groups.

O’Connor gave Birnel an exceptional sentence that was half the 10-year minimum for such crimes. She said Cookie Birnel started the fight and participated in the crime.

Cookie Birnel, 36, died after suffering more than 30 knife wounds during an early morning struggle on March 29, 1995.

Birnel claimed he acted in self-defense after his wife, a heavy user of methamphetamine, attacked him with a 12-inch kitchen knife. She went after him after he found illegal drugs in her purse, he testified at the trial.

Birnel said they wrestled and stumbled several times inside the family room of the couple’s Newman Lake home after Cookie Birnel rushed him in the dark.

Prosecutors said Birnel, 40, reacted with rage, leaving his wife with 17 potentially fatal stab wounds, including a 6-inch-deep wound in her back.

Birnel said he doesn’t remember stabbing his wife. Many of the wounds were caused by both of them grabbing at the knife and his frantic attempts to tear her hands from the weapon, he said.

Birnel suffered a few minor hand and leg cuts in the struggle.

The Court of Appeals based its decision on jury instructions that involved legal guidelines on whether Birnel was acting in self-defense at the time of the attack.

Jurors were told Birnel needed to be in “imminent danger” at the time his wife attacked him with a knife.

But the state Supreme Court, after the Birnel trial, ruled that such instructions were unclear. It said jurors should not be asked to decide if actual danger exists in a case of self-defense.

“They only need to decide if a person thinks he’s in imminent danger,” said Spokane defense attorney John Rodgers, who defended Birnel in the murder trial.

Jurors were also instructed that Birnel could not claim self-defense if he provoked the attack. Prosecutors had argued he knew, from previous arguments and violent encounters with his wife, that she would attack him if he searched her purse and challenged her drug use.

The appeals court said the jury should never have been told about Birnel’s possible aggressor role.

“Mr. Birnel sat waiting for his wife at the top of the stairs - not an inherently aggressive posture for a confrontation,” the court wrote in its 16-page decision.

Spokane County Prosecutor Jim Sweetser said his office will first consider asking the state Supreme Court to review the appeals court decision.

If the high court declines, Sweetser said Birnel will be brought to trial a second time.

Birnel, who is owner of Rick’s Carpet in the Spokane Valley, could not be reached for comment Tuesday. He has remained free pending the appeal and is helping raise three of the couple’s five children.

Cookie Birnel’s mother, Mary MacInnes, called the reversal unfortunate but not unexpected.

MacInnes, 67, said the bigger burden she’s had to bear is dealing with Birnel’s “lenient” prison sentence.

Spokane prosecutors also appealed O’Connor’s five-year sentence, saying she wrongly interpreted the events leading up to Cookie Birnel’s stabbing.

The appeals court did not address the prison sentence, saying the key legal issue at this point was whether Birnel received a fair trial.

“I’m still in a wreck from this whole thing,” MacInnes said from her North Vancouver, British Columbia, home.

MacInnes did not testify in the murder trial. She said she’s ready to return for Birnel’s second trial in Spokane.

“I’ve been through an awful lot,” she said. “Everyone else forgets. But not if you’re the mother of someone who was a lovely girl who shouldn’t have died.”

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