Supreme Court Upholds Dayva Cross’s Death Sentence

Washington’s Supreme Court denied a request Thursday by Dayva Cross, who was convicted in 2001 for stabbing his wife and her two teenage daughters to death in their Snoqualmie home, to overturn his death sentence. The Court rejected Cross’s argument that an Alford plea is insufficient to support capital punishment. 

Cross entered an Alford plea to three counts of aggravated first degree murder.  “In an Alford plea,” Justice Tom Chambers wrote in the Court’s decision, “the accused technically does not acknowledge guilt but concedes there is sufficient evidence to support a conviction.” Rejecting Cross’s plea, the Court ruled “that a capital sentence can be predicated on an Alford plea.”

The Court acknowledged that an accused stands to gain certain benefits from an Alford plea: an accused who enters an Alford plea, for example, can deny guilt in a later civil action. And by entering an Alford plea, the defendant limits the amount of evidence the prosecution may seek to introduce at trial. Justice Chambers, after reviewing the reasons Cross entered an Alford plea, concluded that his “plea was a calculated decision.”

The facts of Cross’s murder are heinous. After stabbing his wife and her two daughters on March 6, 1999, Cross sipped wine and watched TV while holding a third daughter hostage – at knife point – for five hours. Cross was captured after the third daughter escaped and notified police.

“Entering an Alford plea was,” for Cross, “a legitimate tactical move. Because he pleading guilty, it is highly likely the jury did not hear some of the gruesome details of the murder.” But, the Court concluded, “The tactic did not work.”

Cross now remains on Washington’s death row with eight other inmates.

__________________________
Trent Latta is an attorney and he can be reached at TrentLatta@gmail.com