Man’s Death Sentence Reinstated He Missed Reading Of Verdict; Judges Say That Doesn’t Matter

A divided federal appeals court today reinstated the death sentence of a Seattle man who killed a prominent lawyer, his wife and two children and was absent when the jury announced his sentence.

The fact that David Lewis Rice was in the hospital when his verdict was read had prompted a federal judge and a three-judge appellate panel to overturn his death sentence.

But the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 6-5 Tuesday that Rice’s absence did not invalidate his sentence.

“Had he been present, he couldn’t have pleaded with the jury or spoken with the judge,” said the opinion by Judge Alex Kozinski. “He had no active role to play; he was there only to hear the jury announce its decision.”

Although the trial judge should have delayed the proceedings until Rice could attend, his absence had no effect on the verdict, Kozinski said, noting that the same jury had returned guilty verdicts five days earlier in Rice’s presence.

The ruling does not end Rice’s challenge to his death sentence. The court ordered the case returned to the three-judge panel for consideration of other issues the panel did not address when it ruled in Rice’s favor in January 1995.

The ruling drew an impassioned dissent from Judge Dorothy Nelson, who compared Rice to Franz Kafka’s fictional character who was sentenced to death in his absence.

Rice was convicted of the murders of attorney Charles Goldmark, his wife, Annie, and their two sons, Colin and Derek. They were fatally beaten and stabbed in their home on Christmas Eve 1985.

Rice, arrested two days later, confessed to the crimes after talking to a lawyer. The prosecution said the motive was robbery, but defense lawyers said Rice was motivated by a delusion that Goldmark, son of a former state legislator, was the leader of a Communist conspiracy that was poised to order an invasion of the United States. The jury found him sane, however.