Pang May Avoid Trial For Murder Defendant Charged With Setting Lethal Fire

Martin Pang, the man accused of setting a warehouse fire that killed four Seattle firefighters, is relying on international protocol to get out of being tried for murder.

Pang’s trial was supposed to have started this week in Seattle, but it has been delayed while the Washington state Supreme Court considers whether he can be tried for murder in the firefighters’ deaths. Oral arguments were scheduled for today.

Pang, 41, is charged with setting a 1995 fire that destroyed his parents’ frozen-food warehouse. Firefighters Walter Kilgore, Gregory Shoemaker, James Brown and Randall Terlicker died when a floor collapsed in the burning building.

Pang fled to Brazil, and eventually was arrested in Rio de Janeiro. He was returned to Seattle in March 1996 after an extended extradition fight.

King County prosecutors have charged Pang with arson and four counts of first-degree murder. But Pang’s lawyers contend the extradition agreement allows Pang to be tried only for arson.

King County Superior Court Judge Larry Jordan sided with prosecutors last fall, prompting Pang’s appeal to the Supreme Court.

At issue is how to interpret the extradition treaty between the United States and Brazil.

Pang’s defense team, led by Seattle attorney John Henry Browne, said in court briefs that the extradition treaty must be interpreted based on Brazilian law since that’s where the extradition request was filed.

And since Brazilian law doesn’t recognize Washington’s law on felony murder, which states that an arson that leads to death can be considered murder, Pang cannot be tried on murder charges, his attorneys said.

Pang’s attorneys also said that the United States is bound to honor the laws of other countries if it’s to protect its own citizens abroad.

However, King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng argued in his brief that, while it’s not specifically spelled out as such, the Brazilian Supreme Court intended in its extradition order to allow Pang to be prosecuted for the deaths of the firefighters.

He noted that the court said Pang should be held accountable under United States law for these acts: “arson in the first degree, resulting in four deaths.”

Maleng said a letter of support from Brazil’s minister of justice, Nelson Jobim, and the fact that the Brazilian government has not protested the filing of murder charges gives the United States an implicit waiver of the extradition agreement.

Pang’s attorneys claim the government’s silence is not the same as permission. They cited court rulings suggesting that prosecutors must have explicit permission from Brazil before pursuing charges outside the agreement.

They also argue that Jobim doesn’t have the authority to overrule his country’s Supreme Court.

“Otherwise, there is little to prevent U.S. officials from ‘shopping’ among a number of officials in a foreign country until they locate someone who can be coaxed into signing a document they view as helpful - as the record suggests was done in this case,” Pang’s attorneys wrote.

The case has attracted the attention of the highest levels of government in Brazil and the United States, including the presidents of both nations.