Three cap­i­tal cas­es in one coun­ty have already cost Washington almost $10 mil­lion, and have bare­ly begun. For the tri­al of Christopher Monfort, King County has already spent over $4 mil­lion, and it is still in the jury selec­tion phase. Two oth­er cap­i­tal cas­es in the coun­ty have cost a com­bined $4.9 mil­lion, and the tri­als have not start­ed. The cap­i­tal case of ser­i­al killer Gary Ridgway, which is believed to be the most expen­sive case in Washington’s his­to­ry, cost about $12 mil­lion and result­ed in a sen­tence of life with­out parole. In February, Governor Jay Inslee insti­tut­ed a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions in Washington, high­light­ing both the costs and the arbi­trari­ness of the death penal­ty, not­ing, ​“Equal jus­tice under the law is the state’s pri­ma­ry respon­si­bil­i­ty. And in death penal­ty cas­es, I’m not con­vinced equal jus­tice is being served. The use of the death penal­ty in this state is unequal­ly applied, some­times depen­dent on the bud­get of the coun­ty where the crime occurred.” Defense attor­ney Mark Larrañaga said, ​“It is a com­plete waste of resources and time. We’ve had five exe­cu­tions in 40 years. Seventy-five to 80 per­cent of these cas­es are reversed.”

(L. Henterly, ​“Holding Three Simultaneous Death Penalty Trials in King County Is Unprecedented — and Hugely Expensive,” The Stranger, November 12, 2014). See Costs and Arbitrariness.

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