Grays Harbor Prosecuting Attorney Katie Svoboda will ask the state Supreme Court to review an appeals court decision that said convicted triple-murderer Brian Bassett should be resentenced.

Bassett, now in his late 30s, was convicted in 1996 of killing his parents and 5-year-old brother. He was 16 at the time of the killings. He was tried as an adult and convicted of three counts of aggravated first degree murder, which can carry the death penalty. But juveniles in Washington are not subject to capital punishment and then Superior Court Judge Gordon Godfrey sentenced Bassett to life without the possibility of parole, mandatory at the time.

Bassett’s case has already been remanded for sentencing once before. That time, the Appeals Court said the lower court needed to consider factors such as a difficult upbringing and progress he had made in rehabilitation. Grays Harbor Superior Court Judge David Edwards, heard the case and did not find that a lighter sentence was warranted, imposing three, consecutive life without parole sentences.

Svoboda said she felt that taking the case to the Supreme Court was the right thing to do for the victims and those who carried out the law. “There were actual victims in this case and they still have family and friends in this community, and this crime damaged this community. It is unfair to keep opening this wound. Also the judge did everything correctly in this case and that should have some weight, too.

“I don’t think Mr. Bassett has done anything in his life to make me think he is deserving of a second chance. I am going to fight tooth and nail to make sure that (the sentence) is enforced.”

In April, the state Court of Appeals ruled that for a juvenile, life without parole violates the state Constitution’s ban on cruel punishment.

Svoboda named a special deputy prosecutor, Jennifer Joseph, to handle the motion for review. Joseph is a King County deputy prosecutor. Svoboda called her an expert in this aspect of the law.

It could take up to six months for the state Supreme Court to decide whether it will review the case, Svoboda said. She is optimistic because it’s a first of its kind case, she said.

In Joseph’s petition for review, she says that generally courts have held that the Legislature has near absolute authority to establish punishments and the Appeals Court decision taking away the punishment of life without parole for juveniles usurps that.

“Holding that discretionary juvenile (life without parole) sentences violate the state constitutional prohibition on cruel punishment represents a fundamental shift in the balance of power between the Legislature and the courts. This presents a significant question of state constitutional law and substantial public interest justifying review …,” she wrote.