Convicted murderer seeks to die at home

A Spokane man in prison for the 1987 murder of a 32-year-old newspaper carrier has cancer and wants to go home to die.

Gregory A. Rowley, convicted in 1989, is serving a 46-year sentence at Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla for the murder of David Ritchey. Rowley, 47, filed paperwork in May requesting extraordinary medical placement.

“He has cancer all over his body and a tumor in his lungs as big as the doctor’s fist,” said Rowley’s mother, Kaye Struck.

Rowley would like to spend his final days surrounded by family members.

Ritchey’s widow supports Rowley’s request. “He should die with his family,” Marsha Ritchey said. “He never gave that to us, but I don’t want to be like him.”

The Ritcheys’ children, Stephanie, Amber and Brian, think Rowley should stay in prison.

The decision rests with the Washington Department of Corrections.

Rowley’s request is under consideration, state officials said Tuesday. As it stands now, his earliest possible release date is 2019.

Spokane police arrested Rowley on April 29, 1988, on suspicion of Ritchey’s murder. Rowley, a cement laborer, was linked to the crime by a fingerprint. He admitted to being at the scene of the homicide but has maintained his innocence. He says he was afraid to call police to report it because he was drunk and stoned on marijuana.

Ritchey was left beaten, bloody and partially naked in a Rogers High School parking lot on Feb. 24, 1987. He’d just finished his paper route for The Spokesman-Review.

Rowley lived with his mother 100 yards from the scene; their house was on Ritchey’s paper route.

Corrections officials said inmates have been able to request special medical placement since 2001. One reason: to reduce health costs paid by the state, according to the policy.

Forty-five requests have been granted in the past seven years, officials said.

Inmates facing the death penalty or serving life without parole are ineligible for medical placement, DOC spokeswoman Maria Peterson said.

Convicts can also be denied placement if they pose a high risk to the community, or if there is “an absence of resources in the community to provide necessary care for the offender, including funding, a receiving facility/site or family support.”

Inmates released under medical placement are treated like those on parole or probation, Peterson said.

“The victim/offender notifications are sent out,” she said. “The inmate is required to check in with corrections officials or if he cannot, we go see them at their location.”

Decisions about medical placements are made on a case-by-case basis.

“We would never release someone if there was a safety concern,” Peterson said. “If their medical condition improves during the placement, the decision is revisited.”

Rowley’s mother said she wants to care for her son while he’s dying.

“I just want him to be here so I can hug and kiss him,” she said.

Ritchey’s wife, who says she forgave Rowley long ago, said: “David never got to grow old. And now he (Rowley) won’t get to do that either. I’m sorry his family has to go through this. I just hope he’s made peace with this. He’s going to meet his maker.”