http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6951752/
Decision to free felon haunts jurors
By RUTH TEICHROEB AND JESSICA BLANCHARD, The Seattle Post Intelligencer
USA - For two grueling weeks, the 12 jurors heard conflicting opinions about Curtis Shane Thompson. Was Thompson still a vicious serial rapist who should be locked up indefinitely to prevent him from striking again? Or was he a felon who deserved another chance after finding religion and serving 17 years in prison? The jury's answer on Oct. 3, 2003, stunned King County prosecutors.
Jurors unanimously refused to commit Thompson, the first jury in the state to take such action since Washington's sexually violent predator law took effect in 1990. Only three other sex offenders facing commitment have been freed, all by judges.
Thompson's second chance was short-lived. Five months ago, he was charged with 14 felonies, including attacking two women in a University District elevator last August and raping a woman after breaking into her Eastlake apartment. He is in jail awaiting trial. ?
Convicted in 1985 of sexually assaulting four Seattle women in four months, Thompson met the first requirement for commitment by being charged or convicted of a sex crime. But clinical psychologists clashed on two other key conditions for commitment: a person must suffer from a mental abnormality or personality disorder and be likely to re-offend if not confined to a secure facility. Clinical psychologist Amy Phenix took the stand first, saying her examination of Thompson determined that he was a sexual sadist who would likely prey on more victims.
She cited his string of increasingly violent rapes preceding his imprisonment in 1985 as well as his self-confessed history of sexually and physically abusing his stepsisters starting when he was 10 years old. He'd raped them, lit their hair on fire and smothered them with blankets.
Risk factors cited
Other factors that heightened Thompson's risk included his refusal to seek treatment in prison, his inability to sustain any intimate relationships and his relatively young age of 44 upon release, Phenix said. When he was charged with the 1985 rapes, he confessed he had begun to fear he "might kill someone." "He was one of the higher-risk sex offenders I've evaluated in my career," said Phenix in a recent phone interview. She has evaluated sex offenders for a decade in California and helped develop that state's 1996 civil commitment law.
She did not expect jurors to release Thompson.
"I've not ever had a case like this," Phenix said. "I was shocked."
Thompson's scores on psychological tests that estimated his risk of re-offending within the next decade predicted he was anywhere from 11 percent to 89 percent likely to commit more crimes, according to an End of Sentence Review written by Department of Corrections clinical psychologist Carla Van Dam. He scored better on tests that left out crimes for which he was never charged, including his juvenile sex assaults.
Becoming a devout Jehovah's Witness while in prison had prompted Thompson to refuse treatment and therefore increased the chance he'd backslide upon release, Van Dam concluded in her report. Van Dam, who did not testify, recommended Thompson be committed.
Inmates who find religion often win the sympathy of jurors who believe they will be less likely to re-offend, Phenix said. But studies have found that religion has no effect on recidivism rates.
None of the jurors who were interviewed acknowledged being influenced by Thompson's conversion.
"I thought that was just exchanging one addiction for another," Serrano said.
Juror Renee Hayes also said she was skeptical of his conversion but suspected some other jurors wanted to believe he'd changed.
"It definitely opened up a big question mark in some people's minds," said Hayes, 54.
Prosecutors should have done a better job of emphasizing that prison conversions are no guarantee of good behavior on the outside, Hayes said?.