- The Washington
Supreme Court
has unanimously adopted
higher
standards for death penalty attorneys after a 2001 Seattle
Post-Intelligencer
news series revealed that 20% of the defense attorneys who handled
capital
cases in the state had been, or were later, disbarred, suspended or
arrested.
The reforms, enacted by the Court under Chief Justice Gerry Alexander,
require Washington judges presiding over death penalty cases to appoint
defense attorneys who have been screened by a high court committee, or
to offer an acceptable excuse for not doing so during a mandatory
hearing.
(Seattle Post-Intelligencer, June 7, 2002).
