OLYMPIA, Wash., Sept. 18 (UPI) -- The inmate who has spent the longest on Washington state's death row probably has at least two more years of appeals, a prosecutor says.
A federal judge in Seattle denied Jonathan Lee Gentry's most recent appeal on Monday, the Seattle Times reported. Gentry's lawyers filed motions in 1999, claiming that he did not receive a fair trial on several grounds including misconduct by police and prosecutors and ineffective assistance of counsel.
Jonathan Lee Gentry, 52, was found guilty in 1991 of raping and killing a 12-year-old girl who was visiting Bremerton, Wash., from her home in Pocatello, Idaho.
U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik ruled last month that prosecutors withheld evidence and got a false story from a jailhouse informant. But the judge said that the errors were not large enough to throw out the verdict.
Gentry's lawyers plant to appeal Lasnik's ruling. Assistant Attorney General Paul Weisser predicted the case will be in the courts for "at least two more years."
"These are difficult cases, and we know this process is a lengthy one," Weisser said. "We can't afford to get frustrated now."
