g with Polly in a slumber party in her bedroom, and then forced Polly to leave with him. He subsequently slayed and buried Polly, whose decomposed body was discovered in an abandoned area to which Davis took police after his arrest. Davis never offered any explanation for the kidnapping or the slaying. He smiled when evidence of the crime was displayed at the trial making him in the view of Lafferty (1996, October 7) "a poster boy for evil" (p. 64). He displayed contempt for the verdict by making an obscene gesture when it was announced. He has subsequently shown no remorse. At his trial, Davis denied that he sexually assaulted Polly. He made the unsubstantiated, outrageous and irrelevant claim that her father had sexually molested her. The jury had little doubt of his guilt, but spent 20 hours over five days deliberating until they reached their decision to condemn Davis to death (Jury, 1996, June 19, p. A3).
Police investigation. Two hours after the abduction, Davis was questioned by police after his car became stuck in a road, but released him. This later produced, according to Gonzalez (1996, April 17), "national outrage" because the existing law enforcement computer system did not alert local police that he had just been released from prison on parole for a previous kidnapping (p. 417). Actress Winona Ryder, a Petaluma native, offered a $200,000 reward for information leading to the apprehension of Polly's kidnapper; and volunteers all over the world circulated eight million flyers containing an artist's sketch of the kidnapper (Barnacle & Goldston, 1993, December 1, p. 1201). Known sexual molesters in California were questioned without result. Prompted by an anonymous tip, police arrested Davis on November 29, 1993 at a house on a nearby California Coyote Valley Indian reservation where Davis was 'squatting.' Da
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