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Summarized by Kent Larsen
Mormon On Death Row Seeks Stay Of Execution Today
San Francisco CA Chronicle 13Mar00 P2
By Kevin Fagan: Chronicle Staff Writer
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA -- Darrell Rich, who was raised a Mormon
and who spent 22 years on San Quentin's Death Row, is scheduled to be
executed today by lethal injection, if his final appeals don't stay
the execution. Rich says he has changed since murdering four women
and sexually brutalizing five more in 1977. And prison records bear
out the fact that he has been a model prisoner. Rich says he has
found his spiritual center and is deeply remourseful.
Rich's lawyer James Thomson sent a clemency request to California
Governor Gray Davis this month, asking him to weigh the fact that
Rich is one-quarter Cherokee, "The execution of a Native American
brings to light the dominance and repression by our government of an
entire population,'' wrote Thomson. He says that putting Rich to
death is merely more genocide, and Thomson has support from several
anti-death penalty and American Indian groups. Rich would be the
first Indian put to death in California since executions resumed in
1992.
But Gov. Davis rejected Rich's request for clemency on Friday, saying
"There is absolutely nothing about Mr. Rich's brutal behavior that
warrants clemency.'' People in Cottonwood, a little ranching town
south of Redding, California, where Rich committed his crimes, agree
with the governor, "Now, what in the world does that have to do with
anything?'' sputtered Cottonwood business owner Gary Sullivan. "I'm
one-quarter Blackfoot Indian, but if I killed four people I don't
believe I'd be able to use race as a defense. . . . You get out of
life what you put into it.''
Before Rich went on his rampage, however, there was no sign of his
Indian heritage. Rich was adopted by Dean and Lillian Rich when he
was 2 days old and raised a Mormon. Those who knew him say he was
like other country kids growing up. "He was such a nice little boy,
and I bought Christmas cards from him for years,'' said Helen
Hencratt, 86, who lives a few blocks from Rich's childhood home. "I
asked him what he was going to do with his money, and he smiled this
big smile and said, `I'm saving it to buy me a bicycle.' And he did
just that.''
His eighth-grade math teacher, Wes Martin, recalled "a quiet boy, not
the best student in the world, but certainly not the worst. He was OK
at math, and didn't cause much trouble.'' West Cottonwood High
School still has his picture in its trophy case, the 1970 Cottonwood
Chiefs basketball team went undefeated that year.
"Mr. Rich built that house with his own hands, and he always kept
Darrell on a pretty tight leash, taking him to their Mormon church
every Sunday,'' said Tricia Maddox, now 51, who grew up next door to
Rich. "He once locked my brother in a freezer when they were playing,
but there was never any indication he was going to be a killer.''
But underneath the appearances, court records show a few signs of
trouble. The Rich's divorced when Darrell was 15, and he stayed with
his "domineering" mother, who ran an in-home day care center. "His
academic performance deteriorated . . . he was suspended for
fighting, and was sometimes truant,'' the court transcripts read. At
age 17, he became so depressed ``he went hunting and shot himself in
the chest in what was possibly an attempted suicide.'' And by age 19
he was doing time in the California Youth Authority for attacking
someone with a tire iron after drinking.
While still under the supervision of the CYA, he married a former
classmate and had a son, supporting his family through a job at the
Superior Molding wood mill. His life remained stable until his wife
left him in 1977, when Rich was 22. He then went on his rampage a
year later.
Friends were surprised at what he did, "Sure, he was a hard-ass, a
real fighter if you messed with his bike or got him mad, but in a
million years I would never have thought he would do what he did to
those women,'' said co-worker Gale Croxell. "He played on our company
softball team. He liked to go drinking and riding his bike, just like
most other guys around here. He didn't stand out.''
At his trial, defense attorney's argued that he suffered from
"explosive disorder and major depression,'' adding that after his
arrest, he was bewildered, saying "he didn't understand how he could
have done what he did." But prosecutors successfully argued
that he was normal. "I've been a detective 30 years, and I knew
Darrell from the time he was a little boy, but I never saw anything
as horrible as the things he did,'' said Shasta County Sheriff's Lt.
Bradd McDannold, who helped track down the killer. "If I had an
answer to why he went so bad, I'd be a very wealthy individual. Some
things you just can't explain.''
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