Washington State Eliminates Death Penalty

Washington State’s Supreme Court unanimously voted against the death penalty last Thursday following up on a moratorium Governor Jay Inslee imposed in 2014. The vote made Washington the 20th state to eliminate capital punishment. The death penalty has become less common in recent years with six prisoners having been put to death in Washington over the last 55 years, the last being in 2010.

Allen Eugene Gregory, one of eight inmates on death row, brought the case to the state’s Supreme Court. Eugene was found guilty of the 1996 aggravated first degree murder of a woman. He argued the death penalty in Washington is “unequally applied,” and justices agreed with him. The convicted murderer  ordered a study of racial bias and the death penalty, which found “black defendants were four and a half times more likely to be sentenced to death than similarly situated white defendants.”

The State debated the study’s claims but ultimately acknowledged its conclusions. The report went on to later say “race didn’t appear to influence whether prosecutors sought the death penalty, but it was a factor in whether juries imposed a death sentence.” The justices in the majority opinion acknowledged this by saying “we are confident that the association between race and the death penalty is not attributed to random chance.”

The court decided to convert Washington’s current death sentences to life imprisonment. The state reported that the intentions of the death penalty are “retribution and deterrence of capital crimes by prospective offenders.” The current execution of the death penalty did not follow these goals in the state’s current format.

The American Civil Liberties Union and many other organizations against the death penalty have been celebrating in recent days. Governor Jay Inslee said the opinion was a “hugely important moment in our pursuit for equal and fair application of justice.” The ACLU and other parties are interested to see if this creates momentum for eliminating the death penalty in other states.

By Sophie Kieffer