Blame Brazil: Why Martin Pang could be released early from prison

It seems unjust that a man responsible for the deaths of four firefighters and the destruction of part of Seattle’s International District gets to be released early from prison. But that’s the situation with Martin Pang.

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Many in Seattle are asking how and why this is possible. Martin Pang committed arson in 1995. He set his family’s building on fire in the International District with the goal of collecting insurance money. Four firefighters died responding to that fire.

Pang fled to Brazil before authorities brought him back to face charges. And that one point — Brazil — is why Martin Pang has been playing by different rules and laws ever since. And it is why he faces possible early release from prison in September.

“If you commit arson in Brazil and someone dies, you are not going to be charged with murder,” former Washington state Attorney General Rob McKenna told KIRO Radio’s Dave Ross. “They refused to extradite Mr. Pang. So prosecutors from King County had to fly down there and negotiate for his extradition. Finally, they successfully negotiated to have him returned to the United States, but only to face manslaughter charges and not felony murder charges.”

“A similar situation comes up with murders who escape to Canada,” he said. “Canada will not extradite murderers to Washington state where they might be charged with capital murder, in other words, face the death penalty …. Canadian law doesn’t recognize the death penalty, Brazil doesn’t recognize the felony murder rule.”

Pang fled to Brazil. The only way to get him back to face his crime was to downgrade the charges. It is that lesser conviction that Pang has been subject to ever since. His sentencing has therefore been less than what many would expect.

Martin Pang sentencing

State courts used to have a wider range of options when it came to sentencing. They could take circumstances of the crime into consideration. Under that system, Martin Pang would have the four firefighters’ deaths factored into his sentence. But in an effort to be more objective, that discretion was taken away from the courts.

“He’s getting out early because we having something called the sentencing guidelines system in this state that are designed to ensure that offenders who commit similar crimes and have similar criminal histories receive similar sentences,” McKenna said.

“And manslaughter is not treated as seriously under the sentencing guidelines as murder,” he said. “He was convicted of manslaughter 1, which the standard is recklessness. He was not convicted of felony murder, which would have resulted in much longer sentences and even possibly life without parole.”

“Under the guidelines it doesn’t matter who the victims were, even though they were trying to save property and possibly save people’s lives,” he added. “It doesn’t matter. They just follow this formula.”

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