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Byron Scherf is headed for Washington’s death row. But his execution is no certainty.

Snohomish County Superior Court Judge George Appel sentenced Scherf, 54, to life in prison Wednesday for the January 2011 murder of 34-year old Monroe Correctional Complex officer Jayme Biendl.

The judge’s formal sentence is just the first step in a long, expensive route between the courtroom and the death chamber at the Walla Walla Penitentiary.

First the cost. According to the Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, capital cases cost about $2,000,000 each more than an aggravated murder case in which the death penalty is not sought. The organization cites a Duke University study.

Appeals can reverse executions or delay them for years. Washington provides for an automatic review by the State Supreme Court of each death penalty case. Otherwise, condemned convicts have multiple appeal avenues, despite recent efforts in the state legislature to tighten appeals rules and shorten the appeals process.

Appeals have succeeded. In Thurston County, double killer Mitchell Rupe was twice sentenced to death and both sentences were overturned on appeal. A federal judge overturned the death sentence of Wah Mee Massacre defendant “Willie” Mak after eight years on death row.

Executions are rare in Washington. Seventy-eight people have been put to death in the last 100 years, five in the last 20 years.

Scherf joins eight others on Washington’s death row. One man, Jonathan Gentry, was convicted of the June 1988 murder of a 12 year old girl. He remains on death row almost 22 years after his conviction.

Scherf will be transferred to the Walla Walla Penitentiary sometime in the next 10 days, as outlined in state law, but he might not have an execution date for years.