Judge’s Emotional Words After Sentencing Double Murderer to Life

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: And so today we're here for a sentencing, and that sentencing, you know, both sides really are in agreement. But I want to just highlight a couple things. The legislature has given the courts seven goals of really things to think about for sentencing. And of course, you know, the law, we have court cases and court decisions and precedent, but these are the seven. One, ensure that the punishment for a criminal offense is proportionate to the seriousness of the offense in the offender's criminal history. Two, promote respect for the law by providing punishment, which is just. Three, be commensurate with the punishment imposed on others committing similar offenses. Four, protect the public. Five, offer the offender an opportunity to improve himself or herself. Six, make frugal use of the state's resources and local government's resources. And seven, reduce the risk of reoffending by offenders in the community. This particular series of events that occurred are the most serious offenses we have in the state of Washington. Mr. Tunheim touched on this, but the state included as appendix A in their original sentencing memorandum, the legislature's classification of these offenses, aggravated murder in the first degree. It's aggravated murder in the first degree based upon the way that terminology is defined in RCW 1095.020, which is a definitional statute. And then 10.95.030 is the sentences for aggravated first degree murder. The legislature has scaled all of the offenses between levels 1 through 15, except for aggravated murder in the first degree, which is a level 16 offense. The mandatory sentence is life without the possibility of parole, and that's exactly what the court's going to impose on Mr. Burke. They will be consecutive sentences, count one and count three. The, and every, I'm trying to explain just so if people have questions, count two and count four were lesser degrees of murder that gave the jury basically options in terms of what findings they would make. The jury found proof beyond a reasonable doubt for all counts, but because count one and count three are the aggravated murder in the first degree, they control and counts two and four are less important because those are lesser degrees of murder. And so that's why everyone was focused on count one and count one and count one and three will be life without the possibility of parole. Those will be consecutive sentences. I appreciated Mr. Tunheim being thoughtful about community custody. Community custody in this circumstance seems unnecessary because it's a life sentence without the possibility of parole, and that is the court sentence. But, I appreciate the carefulness of saying it should be included because by statute, it is something that because of the serious nature of murder, that will be ordered as well when the court, and I just want to address the defense objection, I appreciated Ms. Norton's briefing. And her oral argument, I appreciate that defense is making this objection, but also the acknowledgement that the law does not support the request, which is why defense wants to raise the objection, but the law is clear. I want to go a step further, though. I want to go a step further, and I want to go a step further, and I want to go a step further, and I want to go a step further, and I want to go a step further, and I want to go a step further, and I want to go a step further, and then I want to go a step further. 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And then I want to go a step further, and then I want to go a step further, and then I want to go a step further, and then I want to go a step further, and then I want to go a step further, and then I want to go a step further, and then I want to go a step further. And then I want to go a step further, and then I want to go a step further, and then I want to go a step further, and then I want to go a step further, and then I want to go a step further. So, with the exception of Mr. Burke's daughter, it might be, and we heard testimony from her, that there have been orders that she has obtained throughout their history, but that's not really part of this case, and the court's not ordering any no contact between Mr. Burke and his daughter is a condition of the sentence in this case. The court's also not ordering anything that would prevent Mr. Burke from speaking with the defense expert in this case. The court is urging Mr. Burke to get involved in every bit of social programming that you can get involved in at the Department of Corrections, everything that's positive. You know, one of the things the court heard, and you might be aware, is that there used to be a death penalty in the state of Washington that stopped. So, you have a gift, a gift that Karen and DeVito do not have. You have a gift of life. And so, what I strongly encourage you to do is to get involved in everything you can that is positive, to try to undo, even if it can only be in a small amount, undo the huge harm that you've caused, and the huge hole that you've caused. In this community based upon your actions. The court is ordering that Mr. Burke will comply with all conditions imposed by the Department of Corrections that, of course, he'll maintain law abiding behavior. That he will engage in all positive social programming, including mental health treatment, while he's at the Department of Corrections. I'm really sorry that everyone is here under these circumstances. The courts, obviously, are limited. I can't, I can't undo the harm that was done. But my experience has been that sometimes having a sentencing, having an opportunity to have at least legal closure to a case can bring some peace. And I hope that having this opportunity and the opportunity to be through this process and see it to conclusion and to hear what the sentence is does bring some peace and allows grieving to continue, which I know will continue for a long time, probably forever in some ways. But what I would ask all of you is, and I think you all did a really nice job of expressing this either in court or in the letters is using Karen and DeVito as an example into thinking about how they would want you to move forward and what things they would want you to do. It's clear, it's clear they would want you to live life to its fullest, you would not, they would not want the horrible nature of this crime to impact your faith in humanity, to impact your faith in others. And so I would just encourage you that they sound, and I wish I had had the opportunity to know them, but I've gotten to know them a little bit through all of you, and I feel the richer for even that. And so I just, I encourage you all to continue to think about them and use them as an example moving forward.