Now, Russell, 60, appears to have beaten his sentence for life in prison without the possibility of release – for a second time. The result? He could be freed in less than four years.
Listen Thursday for Dori’s interview with the attorney who successfully argued in favor of killer’s Three Strikes conviction – and his reaction to lawmakers’ soft-on-crime actions
“I really found it hard to even believe the very idea of releasing someone who has had three strikes several times – and has been smart enough to find a little loophole that he could get out,” Johnson told Dori’s listeners. However, the Washington State Court of Appeals vacated Russell’s first “Three Strikes” sentence when the judges decided that his Arizona kidnapping felony conviction didn’t correspond to the same charge here. When the appeals court translated the charge, the kidnapping felony didn’t qualify as a strike offense – so Russell was released from prison in June 2001.
Again, Russell was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release under the “Three Strikes” act. Meanwhile, Johnson told Dori, Chelsea’s murder “ripped through our family.” Even after 17 years and a move to California, “It’s not something you can just push aside,” she said.Chelsea had already earned a variety of blue and red ribbons for horse racing events, Johnson recalled to Dori, adding “She’d be 30 years old, but her dreams were cut out of what she was going to do. She was robbed of that.
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