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State And Federal Info

Washington

Notable Cases

In March 2004, both houses of the Washington state legislature passed resolutions stating that Chief Leschi was wrongly convicted and executed in Washington territory in 1858 and asked the state supreme court to vacate Leschi’s conviction. The court’s chief justice, however, said that this was unlikely to happen, since it was not at all clear that the state court had jurisdiction in a matter decided 146 years earlier in a territorial court. On December 10, 2004, Chief Leschi was exonerated by a unanimous vote by a Historical Court of Inquiry following a trial in absentia.

Notable Exonerations

On March 2, 1994, U.S. District Judge Robert Bryan overturned Benjamin Harris’ conviction and vacated his sentence of death for the 1984 murder of Jimmy Turner on the basis that his original trial lawyer had been incompetent. Harris’s attorney interviewed only 3 of the 32 witnesses listed in police reports and spent less than 2 hours consulting with Harris before trial. Harris’s co-defendant was acquitted. Bryan ordered Harris released from custody if not brought to a speedy retrial. The decision was upheld by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on September 12, 1995. The prosecution decided not to retry Harris but tried to have him confined as insane. (They had previously argued that he was competent to stand trial.) On July 16, 1997, a jury decided that Harris should not be imprisoned at Western State Hospital. Harris maintains his innocence and says he was framed.

Milestones in Abolition/Reinstatement

Washington abolished the death penalty in 1913, but reinstated it in 1919. The statute remained unchanged until 1975, when it was again abolished. An Initiative to the People in the same year, Initiative 316, reinstated it for a second time as the mandatory penalty for aggravated murder in the first degree. U.S. Supreme Court rulings in Woodson v. North Carolina and Roberts v. Louisiana invalidated laws that mandated death sentences and the statute was modified to give detailed procedures for imposing the death penalty.

This new law was itself found unconstitutional by the Washington Supreme Court, as a person who had pled not guilty could be sentenced to death, while someone who pled guilty would receive a maximum sentence of life imprisonment without possibility of parole. The current law was passed in 1981 to correct these constitutional defects.

On February 11, 2014, Governor Jay Inslee announced that he would issue a reprieve for any death penalty case that reaches his desk. He indicated that he did not intend to commute the sentences of the nine men on the state’s death row as part of this moratorium, but no executions are expected to occur while he is governor.

On October 11, 2018, in State v. Gregory, the Washington Supreme Court declared the state’s death penalty statute unconstitutional, saying that it was applied in an arbitrary and racially discriminatory manner. You can read the pleadings filed in the Washington Supreme Court here.

Other Interesting Facts

At the time its death penalty was declared unconstitutional in October 2018, Washington was the only state with an active gallows. Death-row prisoners in Washington were able to choose if their execution would be carried out by lethal injection or hanging. If the prisoner made no decision, the default method was lethal injection.

On September 10, 2010 Washington became the second state, after Ohio, to use a single dose injection of sodium thiopental as opposed to the typical three-drug protocol used in most other jurisdictions.

Mt. Rainier.  Photo by Kelvin Kay.
Mt. Rainier. Photo by Kelvin Kay.

Resources

  • Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
  • Department of Corrections
  • Prosecutors
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Washington Execution Totals Since 1976

News & Developments


Recent Legislative Activity

Mar 08, 2020

Legislative Roundup — Recent Legislative Activity as of March 7

Washington — A bill that would for­mal­ly remove Washington’s judi­cial­ly abol­ished death penal­ty from the state’s statute books has failed. SB 5339, which pa…

Recent Legislative Activity

Feb 28, 2020

Legislative Roundup — Recent Legislative Activity as of February 28, 2020

Virginia — The House Health, Welfare, and Institutions Committee vot­ed 13 – 9 on February 25 to approve a bill that would make the iden­ti­ty of any enti­ty that pro­vides exe­cu­tion drugs pub­lic information. 

Recent Legislative Activity

Feb 12, 2020

Major Newspapers in Ohio, Washington Editorialize in Favor of Death Penalty Repeal

As state leg­is­la­tures in Ohio and Washington con­tem­plate the future of their death-penal­ty statutes, major news­pa­pers in each of the states are advo­cat­ing leg­isla­tive repeal. On February 6, 2020, following …

Major Newspapers in Ohio, Washington Editorialize in Favor of Death Penalty Repeal

Recent Legislative Activity

Feb 03, 2020

Washington Senate Passes Bill to Formalize Repeal of Capital Punishment

For the third con­sec­u­tive year, the Washington State Senate has vot­ed to remove the death penal­ty from the state’s statute books. In a 28 – 18 vote praised by abo­li­tion advo­cates for its bipar­ti­san­ship, four sen­ate Republicans joined 24 of their Dem…

Washington Senate Passes Bill to Formalize Repeal of Capital Punishment

Crimes Punishable by Death

Dec 23, 2019

DPIC Analysis: Death Penalty Erosion Spreads Across the Western United States in 2019

In a year of declin­ing death-penal­ty usage across the United States, nowhere was the ero­sion of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment as sus­tained and pro­nounced in 2019 as it was in the west­ern United States. Continuing a wave of momen­tum from 

DPIC Analysis: Death Penalty Erosion Spreads Across the Western United States in 2019

Race

Mar 14, 2019

NEW PODCAST: The Race Study that Convinced the Court to Declare Washington’s Death Penalty Unconstitutional

In October 2018, the Washington Supreme Court unan­i­mous­ly struck down the state’s death penal­ty, find­ing that it had been ​“imposed in an arbi­trary and racially …

NEW PODCAST: The Race Study that Convinced the Court to Declare Washington’s Death Penalty Unconstitutional

Arbitrariness

Mar 13, 2019

Statements from Governors Imposing Moratoria on Executions

Statements from Governors of California, Pennsylvania, Washington, Colorado, and Oregon Halting Executions In the past few years, the gov­er­nors of California, Pennsylvania, Washington, Colorado, and Oregon have put a halt to exe­cu­tions i…

Sentencing Data

Dec 13, 2018

Report on ​“Principles for the 21st Century Prosecutor” Calls for Prosecutors to Work to End Death Penalty

A group of jus­tice-reform orga­ni­za­tions has issued a new report, 21 Principles for the 21st Century Prosecutor, that calls on pros­e­cu­tors to ​“work to end the death penal­ty” as part of its rec­om­mend­ed reforms in pros­e­cu­to­r­i­al prac­tices. Th…

Report on “Principles for the 21st Century Prosecutor” Calls for Prosecutors to Work to End Death Penalty

Sentencing Alternatives

Nov 01, 2018

LWOP Post-Repeal

Life Without Parole Laws in States That Recently Repealed the Death Penalty…

Arbitrariness

Oct 12, 2018

Washington Supreme Court Declares State’s Death Penalty Unconstitutional

Finding that the death penal­ty ​“is imposed in an arbi­trary and racial­ly biased man­ner,” a unan­i­mous Washington Supreme Court has struck down the state’s cap­i­tal-pun­ish­ment statute as vio­lat­ing Washington’s state con­sti­tu­tion­al pro…

Washington Supreme Court Declares State's Death Penalty Unconstitutional
View More

View Information by State

Additional Information


  • Death Penalty: No
  • Number of Executions Since 1976: 5
  • Number of Executions Before 1976 (may include federal and military executions): 105
  • Current Death Row Population: 0
  • Women on Death Row: 0
  • Number of Innocent People Freed From Death Row: 1
  • Number of Clemencies Granted: 0
  • Date of Reinstatement (following Furman v. Georgia): November 4, 1975
  • Date of Abolition: October 11, 2018 (State v. Gregory)
  • Location of Death Row/Executions: Walla Walla
  • Capital: Olympia
  • Population: 7,705,281*
  • Murder Rate (per 100,000 population): 2.6
  • Is Life Without Parole an Option?: Yes
  • Method of Execution: Choice of Injection or Hanging
  • Clemency Process: Governor has sole authority to grant clemency
  • Governor: Jay Inslee

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