In the Matter of the Personal Restraint of Robert Lee Yates, Jr.

Summary

The Washington Supreme Court dismissed Robert Yates's first personal restraint petition challenging his Pierce County aggravated first degree murder convictions and death sentence, rejecting all 25 grounds for relief, including jury-selection and juror-pay claims, a death-qualification challenge, public trial claims, juror bias, admissibility of FBI linkage-analysis testimony, multiple ineffective-assistance claims, mitigation-nexus and future-dangerousness argument claims, proportionality and arbitrariness attacks, and cumulative error. The court found only one instance of deficient performance — failure to investigate whether victims' relatives would testify against the death penalty — but held it non-prejudicial because the jury heard extensive humanizing evidence. Chief Justice Madsen, concurring (joined by Wiggins and González, JJ.), agreed with dismissal but wrote separately to state her concern with the majority's treatment of the courtroom closure and questionnaire-sealing issues, which she would resolve on actual-and-substantial-prejudice grounds.