SEATTLE, Wash. – Convicted serial killer Robert Lee Yates is set to appear in a federal courtroom Monday.
Yates’ hearing is scheduled for 9:00 a.m. in Seattle. The hearing is part of a request to stay his execution.
In 2000, Yates pleaded guilty to 13 counts of murder in Spokane, Walla Walla and Skagit counties. From 1996 to 1998, he killed at least 13 women who worked as prostitutes along Spokane's Sprague Avenue. He buried at least one of his victims outside of his bedroom window on the South Hill.
However, he was put on death row for two murders out of Pierce County committed in 1975.
The state Supreme Court unanimously rejected an effect by Yates to overturn his conviction and death sentence in 2015. Yates filed another petition in 2014 claiming his lawyers failed to argue that his trial in Pierce County was improper. In 2013, the Supreme Court rejected Yates' effort to challenge his death sentence on grounds that included ineffective counsel.
Yates remains on death row at the Washington State Penitentiary.
