The death penalty doesn't prevent murder-- but convicted murderers sure want to avoid it.

Convicted serial killer, Robert Yates, is trying hard to avoid it.

Yates was sentenced to 408 years in prison in 2000 after confessing to 13 killings in a plea deal with Spokane County prosecutors that included information on the Pierce County deaths.

[...]

"Mr. Yates' [death] sentence is arbitrary, wanton ... freakish and random in light of his Spokane County sentence," his lawyers argued in court documents.