- David Lewis Rice
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David Lewis Rice (born 1958) is a follower of the Christian Identity movement who, on Christmas Eve 1985, gained entry to the Seattle home of civil rights attorney Charles Goldmark using a toy gun and pretending to be a deliveryman.[1] He tied the family up, chloroformed them into unconsciousness, beat them with a steam iron, and stabbed them.[1] Rice erroneously believed the family to be Jewish Communists,[2] and saw the crime as part of a broader religious war between American Christianity and Soviet atheism. At trial, Rice argued he was not responsible for the crime because he was insane at the time.[3]
Rice was convicted in 1986 of aggravated murder for the four deaths and was sentenced to death.[1] The conviction was later overturned on the grounds of an incompetent defense.[4] Rice repeatedly displayed psychotic symptoms throughout his trial, but his attorney failed to emphasize them in his defense. In 1998, he pleaded guilty to the crimes[5] in exchange for avoiding the death penalty. He remains in prison serving out a life sentence.
The Goldmark Murders remain one of the most notorious anti-Semitic hate crimes in recent memory in the United States, even though the victims were not actually Jewish. It also remains a cause célèbre of capital punishment proponents, since Rice avoided death based only on the ineptitude of his attorney's work at trial. Rice is currently incarcerated in Washington State Penitentiary.
References
- ^ a b c "Rice sentenced to death". Ellensburg Daily Record. July 21 1986. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=BCgQAAAAIBAJ&sjid=bY8DAAAAIBAJ&pg=5306,1518717&dq=david-lewis-rice&hl=en. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
- ^ Zeleny, Jeff (9 October 2010). "The Caucus; Illinois Senate Rrace: In Matters of Trust, Gloves Are Off". The New York Times: p. 14. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DEFD6133EF931A15754C0A960948260. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
- ^ "Rice v. Wood, 44 F.3d 1396, US Court of Appeals". http://cases.justia.com/us-court-of-appeals/F3/44/1396/513107/. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
- ^ "Death sentence reversed in Goldmark murders". The Spokesman-Review. January 5, 1995. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=j7MyAAAAIBAJ&sjid=PfEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=2007,2818824&dq=david-lewis-rice+overturned&hl=en. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
- ^ "Killer gets life in 1985 tragedy". Ellensburg Daily Record. May 27 1998. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=3PseAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-MoEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5285,5142575&dq=david-lewis-rice+pleaded+1998&hl=en. Retrieved 17 October 2010.
External links
Categories:- 1958 births
- Living people
- Perpetrators of religiously motivated violence in the United States
- American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment
- Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Washington (state)
- American prisoners sentenced to death
- Prisoners sentenced to death by Washington (state)
- American people convicted of murder
- American mass murderers
- People convicted of murder by Washington (state)
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