Attorneys for Killer Ask Davis to Block March 15 Execution

SAN FRANCISCO — Lawyers for Darrell Rich, scheduled to be executed March 15 for killing three young women and an 11-year-old girl, said in clemency papers Wednesday that he is a changed and remorseful man who poses no threat to society.

Rich “lives each day knowing the terrible pain he has caused and the losses he has inflicted,” attorneys James S. Thomson and Clyde Blackmon said in a letter to Gov. Gray Davis.

They urged Davis to follow the example of Illinois Gov. George Ryan and “lead us away from state-sanctioned killing.” Ryan recently declared a moratorium on executions in his state after a series of cases in which death row inmates were found to be innocent. Davis has said he will not take the same action.

Rich, now 45, was convicted of three first-degree murders, one second-degree murder and sexual assaults on five other women in Shasta County from June through August 1978. One victim, 11-year-old Annette Selix, was thrown to her death from a 105-foot-high highway bridge.

Rich did not deny his guilt. His defense was based on his mental condition.

State and federal courts have upheld his death sentence, and no appeals are pending. A clemency hearing is scheduled Monday before the state Board of Prison Terms, which will submit a confidential recommendation to Davis.

Shasta County Dist. Atty. McGregor Scott said Wednesday that he was unimpressed with the defense lawyers’ claims that Rich’s good behavior in prison shows he is no longer dangerous and should be granted clemency.

Scott said Rich’s surviving victims and family members of the murder victims want him executed. He also said there was no reason for California to follow Illinois’ lead in suspending executions.