The death Adam Bartlett inflicted on his 3-week-old son came slowly -- a fierce shaking that left the baby in a coma from midautumn of 1990 until the following spring.

The Burien man, who'd already inflicted brain damage on his older son, was supposed to spend 36 years in prison for murder. The legal system gave him a second chance.

Bartlett served a little more than a third of that time and went free.

Four years after a controversial Washington Supreme Court ruling, about two-thirds of the people whose King County murder convictions were thrown out got shorter prison sentences the second time around.

According to a Seattle P-I analysis, nearly half of those who otherwise would have faced more time behind bars were set free.

But it didn't always work that way. Jess Smith got a second murder trial -- but now he'll be sitting in prison five years longer than the sentence he got in the first place.

King County prosecutors are wrapping up their effort to bring each "felony murder" case back to court -- often having to file less serious charges, such as manslaughter -- and have brought new trials or worked out guilty pleas for 79 people.

Their new prison terms varied widely, but on average, people shaved roughly five years off their original sentence for ending a life.

"It's kind of bittersweet, because there were some cases that were absolutely heartbreaking," said Deputy Prosecutor Melinda Young, who led a team assigned to handle the cases. "I don't think we can say we made lemonade out of these lemons, but I think we can say we did the best job we possibly could."

Defense attorney Tim Ford, who won the momentous case in 2002, said the effect was bigger than he'd initially expected and wasn't necessarily what he'd hoped for.

But "probably the result of this overall process is something closer to a fair and rational sentencing scheme for people who committed unintentional homicides," he said.

The ruling came in October 2002, drawing more intense reaction than any state Supreme Court decision in years. It became fodder for talk radio and drew battle lines for justices' elections.

Many victims' relatives were outraged that the people who killed their loved ones were getting an unexpected reprieve.

Some defense attorneys said the court had finally fixed a quirk in the law that put people away for murder for unintentionally killing someone -- a crime that could be more fairly described as manslaughter.

In Washington, prosecutors had always been able to file murder charges when a felony is committed -- such as burglary or arson -- and someone dies, even if that wasn't the intent.

But in a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court said assault wasn't one of those felonies -- a ruling that upended one way that prosecutors across the state had been filing second-degree murder charges for decades.

The Legislature scrambled to act, specifically including deadly assaults in the felony murder law. But it only applied to new cases -- not the estimated 300 cases the ruling threw into doubt across the state.

At the time, prosecutors claimed the court ruling could mean a get-out-of-jail-free pass to hundreds of prisoners. Defense attorneys countered that prosecutors would be able to keep most behind bars on other charges.

The true consequences, which have taken several years to become clear, landed somewhere in between, according to a P-I analysis of King County's cases using records from prosecutors, the courts and the state Department of Corrections.

People whose murder convictions were thrown out include men who beat infants, attacked girlfriends, got into deadly bar fights or shot people over drugs.

And they include one woman who hit another woman in the head with a wrench and choked her to death in a fight over a man.

Special team formed

In terms of its expected consequences, the high court's ruling was so extraordinary that Prosecutor Norm Maleng put together a team of six deputy prosecutors and four assistants just to handle the fallout.

Young said the team had to assess which murder cases would be affected -- they initially thought there would be more than 100, though there are actually about 90 -- and prepare to retry all of them, trying to find witnesses with faded memories and evidence that had, in some cases, been destroyed.

"It really, truly has been unlike anything our office has ever seen," she said.

Young said each person was given a chance to plead guilty to receive the same sentence they'd gotten the first time, and some did. In other cases, prosecutors had to consider their case.

Could they rebuild a murder case by proving that the death was intentional? Or would they have to rely on less serious charges?

Jerell Thomas, who punched a man during Seattle's 2001 Mardi Gras celebration, causing a fatal fall to the pavement, was allowed to plead guilty to manslaughter.

So were a number of people, such as Bartlett, who, in a moment of rage, took the life of a small child.

Prosecutors believed they had a more solid case against some, such as Jess Smith, and brought them to trial on intentional or even premeditated murder charges, though juries didn't always agree.

The whole effort cost the prosecutor's office more than $1.6 million, said spokesman Dan Donohoe, though it involved police, defense and court resources as well.

Ford, however, noted that reducing each person's prison sentence an average of five years likely saved taxpayers millions.

The prosecutors' team will disband at the end of this month, though prosecutors will keep working on about eight unresolved cases.

'OK to commit murder'

Of the 79 people who were reprosecuted and resentenced for killing someone in King County, roughly 85 percent will spend -- or have already served -- at least 10 years in prison.

Nine had already served their entire sentence and were free by the time the court ruling affected their cases. To date, 35 have been released.

On average, people were sentenced to three-quarters of the prison term they originally received. A few ended up serving more time -- in some cases by rejecting a plea deal and leaving their case up to a jury.

Some ended up with sentences that were just a sliver of their original penalty, though some had already been behind bars for years when their reprieve came.

Bartlett, for example, pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter last year and was sentenced to just five years in prison -- but he'd already spent 14 years behind bars by the time that happened.

In the second round of court hearings for people whose murder convictions were vacated, some expressed remorse, and victims' relatives got a second chance to face the person and say what they wanted to say.

"For some, this helped them really, truly put it behind them," Young said. "For others, this was nothing but rubbing salt in the wound."

Melva Levick is still outraged that Jason Twyman, who beat her son and left him to die in a drainage ditch in 1994, originally got a 25-year prison sentence and ended up doing less than 12 years because of a court ruling.

"They're telling people that it's not a big deal. You serve a few slaps on the wrist and get out," she said. "They're telling people it's OK to commit murder."

Twyman, who went free almost two years ago, said he never meant for Joey Levick to die. But he knows that doesn't lessen the pain for the young man's family.

"I can't imagine how hard it is for them," said Twyman, 33. "The only thing I can do is became a productive member of society."

For some, a second chance

A few people who went free early have been arrested again for new crimes.

Ricky Arntsen got his original 24-year sentence for shooting a man trimmed to less then 10 years. But late last year, he assaulted a woman and pelted her car with rocks, earning six more months behind bars.

Travon Pinkney, who served less than a third of his original sentence for a 1999 gang shooting, now faces up to five more years for being caught with a 9 mm pistol.

Michael Calhoun, who cut his 18-year sentence in half for beating a fellow transient to death with an iron bar, is now accused of assaulting his girlfriend and shooting a gun one night while drunk and suicidal, according to court papers.

Another was arrested for allegedly stealing cotton swabs; another is accused of drunken driving. Others are trying to push their lives in a better direction -- which can be tough for convicted felons, their attorneys say.

Shawn Andress, who stabbed a man in a West Seattle bar fight in the very case that helped undo felony-murder convictions across the state, is now a sales manager at a car dealership and a married new father, Ford said.

Jesse Davis, who stabbed a man in jealous anger over a woman, could be released in September after trimming almost three years from his 16-year sentence. His attorney, Jeff Ellis, said he's confident the man "will return to be a productive citizen."

"He really turned his life around in prison," Ellis said. "Not only does he stay out of trouble, he's very much a counselor to some of the younger guys."

Twyman said he has a supportive girlfriend and a job installing air-conditioning and heating units with a company that knows about his past. He plans to "pay my taxes, go to work and raise a family."

RULING AT A GLANCE

In October 2002, the state Supreme Court did away with one way that murder charges had been filed for nearly three decades. Prosecutors criticized the court's ruling for giving a break to criminals while defense attorneys said it corrected a problem with how people were charged in unintentional homicides. The ruling brought into question about 300 murder convictions.

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