Coe: Inside the courtroom
Roommate: Coe commitment unfair
Kevin Coe got a raw deal, says one of his roommates at McNeil Island.
The trial should have been moved out of Spokane, and the judge shouldn't have allowed testimony about old crimes Coe was never charged with, Richard Scott told The Spokesman-Review's Richard Roesler.
"If I was on the jury, I would have supported his release on the grounds that he did his 25 years," said Scott, a convicted child rapist who's also confined to the state's Special Committment Center for sex offenders.
"You do your time and you get out. That's how it should work, rather than doing your time and then doing another 20 years here.
"This is not a treatment center," he added. "This is just another prison."
Scott said jurors should not have heard about cases where Coe wasn't convicted. "Bringing in alleged victims from 25 years ago, it's just not proper," he said.
As for trying the case in Spokane County, he said, "The appeals court is going to say, 'Yes, there was more than enough evidence of bias in that community.' "
But even if Coe wins his appeal, Scott said, "It takes a year or two to reverse it, then it maybe goes to the state Supreme Court, and then guess what? It just goes back to trial again.
"You don't win your release, you just win a new trial."
There is 1 comment on this post.
Really? We care what a convicted child rapist thinks is fair? I am sure he would like to be out on the streets committing more crimes too.
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Kevin Coe, labeled the "South Hill rapist" in a community frightened by dozens of attacks on women in the Spokane area in the late 1970s and early 1980s, has been in prison since 1981. He was slated for release in September 2006 when the Washington state attorney general's office moved to have Coe spend the rest of his life in prison through the civil commitment program. In this trial, the state seeks to convince jurors that Coe represents too much of a threat to ever be released.
Karen Dorn Steele has been a Spokesman-Review reporter since 1982,
covering the courts, environment, enterprise and investigative beat. She
lived in Spokane in 1980 when a series of unsolved rapes terrorized the
city. 
Rick Bonino has worked at The Spokesman-Review in various positions
since 1977. He covered both of Kevin Coe's previous trials, in 1981 and
1985, and also Ruth Coe's trial in 1982. 
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