Clemency Considered For Murderer Whitman County Woman, 64, Faces Life In Prison For Husband’s Slaying

Gov. Gary Locke is facing his first clemency decision, involving a former Whitman County school librarian facing a life sentence for murder.

Two months ago, the state Clemency Board recommended unanimously that Neva Henning be released from prison after 11 years. Locke must now decide whether to follow the recommendation.

“It’s been harder than I thought, waiting for a decision,” Henning, 64, told the Seattle Times in a recent interview at the Women’s Correctional Center here. “I’m holding on and waiting, trying to be patient. My faith is what’s kept me going.”

She is serving a life sentence on a first-degree murder conviction, accused of goading her foster son into killing her husband in 1981. She won’t be eligible for parole until 2002.

Aides say the governor has been busy reviewing bills passed by the Legislature and hasn’t had time to consider the clemency recommendations.

Granting clemency is rare. Only 10 people got pardons or clemency from Locke’s successor, Mike Lowry, and six were dying or seriously ill.

About 250 inmates were granted hearings before the Clemency Board during the Lowry administration - about one-quarter of the requests - and rarely was clemency recommended.

“If we recommend one in a (quarterly) meeting, it’s extraordinary,” said Anita Peterson, a psychologist and Clemency Board chairwoman.

Henning’s case is the first time the five-member board unanimously agreed on clemency since it was formed in 1984. Board members did not reconsider Henning’s conviction but simply decided she had served enough time.

During her stay behind bars, Henning’s father has died, her daughters have married and borne her grandchildren, and her mother’s health has been slipping away.

Henning, a slight woman with curly, gray hair, passes time working for the prison’s education department or making needlecraft gifts for her grandchildren. The former librarian doesn’t read; her vision isn’t good, and the lighting is too poor in her cell.

She said she holds no anger toward Richard Miller, the man who confessed to shooting her husband, Duane. Indeed, she still contends it was a masked intruder, not Miller, who fired the fatal shot.

“You can’t hold your anger and maintain your health,” she said. “I could survive or dwell in misery. What happened happened. Life goes on.”

Duane Henning, a state grain inspector, was shot in the back one winter morning in 1981 when he went to a storage shed to fetch a pan for his wife.

Police arrested Miller, a teenager the Hennings had taken in and encouraged to finish high school. He was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

While in prison, Miller changed his story, asserting that he and Neva Henning were lovers and that she had persuaded him to shoot her husband to collect insurance money.

Miller was allowed to change his plea to second-degree murder in exchange for testifying against Neva Henning. He was paroled in 1990.

Henning went to trial and was convicted in 1983 in a verdict that left even the judge puzzled.

“Reasonable doubt was out there. There was a lot of surprise in the courtroom,” said Spokane County Superior Court Judge Michael Donohoe. He said the case was so unusual and Henning’s supporters so credible that he took the unprecedented step of allowing her to remain free through the three years of her appeals.

“It was the most bizarre case. No physical evidence. No eyewitnesses. Richard Miller, a convicted felon, got a deal,” said Jeff Morris, a Spokane attorney who represented Henning and still remains her friend. “There was not one iota of evidence, other than Richard Miller’s testimony. She was a model woman before she became a model prisoner. I think of her every day.”

Ron Carpenter, who prosecuted the case for Whitman County, said he has no doubt that Henning is guilty.

“It was circumstantial … but airtight circumstantial,” he said. “She sent him out to be shot. Once we had (Miller’s) cooperation, we had the nails in the coffin. It was a contract killing.”

Henning’s oldest daughter, Sandee Porter, is the town clerk of Rosalia. Every six weeks, Porter drives to Purdy for a visit with her mother. It’s not easy to leave.

“Even though she’s the one who has to go through this, she copes better than we do,” Porter said.