Governor frees two convicts

OLYMPIA – Gov. Gary Locke has commuted the sentences of two life-term prison inmates: one who was convicted of killing an elderly woman, the other a former police officer with multiple statutory rape convictions.

Locke said he commuted the sentences of Susan Cummings, 37, and Clyde Ray Spencer, 56, because of problems with the cases against them and because both were reported to be model inmates.

Locke signed the orders commuting Cummings’ and Spencer’s sentences Dec. 23.

Cummings was a teenager when she was convicted in 1985 in the murder of her friend and neighbor, 88-year-old Christine Zacharias.

Prosecutors argued that Cummings was an accomplice to those who beat, sexually assaulted and strangled the elderly woman during a burglary at her Walla Walla home in 1983.

Arthur Eggers, who prosecuted Cummings and is now retired, said the conviction was solid and withstood several appeals.

Still, he said he had no qualms about Locke’s decision to free Cummings.

“I wish her the best,” Eggers told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

“If she’s going to be out, I wish her the best and for her to live a clean life.”

Cummings will participate in a transition program and will be a free woman May 24, exactly 20 years from the date of her conviction.

She already has a job lined up at a local nursery, which also has offered housing assistance.

Her release comes after years of efforts by friends and supporters who argued that there were problems with the case against her.

Cummings was found guilty of allowing Zacharias’ killer or killers into the house.

By law, that made her as guilty as whoever did kill Zacharias.

But her conviction was based in part on the statements of Joe Aguilar and Lillie Rowland, who received reduced sentences because of their testimony.

Both later recanted their statements. Rowland said she couldn’t even recall testifying at Cummings’ trial.

Cummings maintained her innocence during trial, but after she was convicted, she offered a confession in exchange for leniency.

She was supposed to testify against two other men suspected in Zacharias’ murder but refused, saying she gave a false confession in a desperate attempt to get out of prison.

She has been in prison ever since, at the Washington Corrections Center for Women near Gig Harbor.

Locke’s commutation order says Cummings has been a model inmate, working with special-needs inmates, maintaining three prison gardens, teaching pottery and quilting classes, and representing fellow inmates.

Nearly 50 current and former prison employees wrote letters supporting Cummings when she went before the Clemency and Pardons Board in February.

The board ultimately recommended her release because it believed her life sentence was too severe.

“It is clear that having spent 19 years in prison, Ms. Cummings has grown and matured within the system,” the board stated in the order of commutation.

Attorney Beth Colgan, who represented Cummings at the hearing before the clemency board, said her client was “excited about having a future now.”

Colgan said Cummings owes her release in part to her own efforts, but also to the work of the prison staff.

“They basically taught her how to be a good person,” Colgan said.

Spencer, a former police officer in Vancouver, Wash., was given two life terms plus a 14-year sentence in 1985 for multiple first-degree statutory rape convictions.

He has consistently proclaimed his innocence.

Locke’s order notes problems with the case against Spencer, including lack of medical evidence that the victims had been abused, inconsistent statements from the victims and the fact that the supervisor of the detectives investigating the case had an affair with Spencer’s wife.

Clark County Prosecutor Art Curtis said he was blindsided by Locke’s decision and could not immediately say whether he would have supported or opposed Spencer’s early release.