The state of Washington has car­ried out 4 exe­cu­tions in 45 years, the last one being in 2001 when James Elledge waived his appeals and was exe­cut­ed. Some pros­e­cu­tors, leg­is­la­tors, and defense attor­neys are ques­tion­ing the val­ue of keep­ing the sys­tem. Kitsap County Prosecutor Russell Hauge (pic­tured) sup­ports the death penal­ty but has decid­ed against seek­ing it in a recent case because he felt the appeals process would sim­ply nev­er end. ​“In terms of jus­tice, the worst thing that could have hap­pened in that case is the death penal­ty,” explained Hauge. ​“It would’ve start­ed anoth­er cycle and per­haps 20 more years of appeals, forc­ing the victim’s fam­i­ly to keep revis­it­ing this tragedy.” 

Hauge pur­sued the death penal­ty only once and the jury returned a split ver­dict result­ing in a sen­tence of life in prison. Because Washington death penal­ty cas­es take so long, Hauge said, ​“You’re not going to see any expan­sion of [the death penal­ty].” In regard to the appeals process, he said, ​“I think we’re going to con­tin­ue to live like this,” as the courts try to ensure they do not make a deadly mistake.

Defense attor­ney Ron Ness does not believe that the state should be in the busi­ness of killing peo­ple. He agreed that the cap­i­tal appeals process is long but unlike­ly to change: ​“Mistakes can be made,” Ness said, ​“And with the death penal­ty, there’s no way to turn it around. You should have every oppor­tu­ni­ty to make sure it’s the cor­rect ver­dict, even if it takes 10 to 15 years.” State Sen. Adam Kline, D‑Seattle, believes the death penal­ty is too expen­sive and fails to low­er vio­lent crime rates in the states that use it. ​“It has no deter­rent effect, zero,” he said. ​“And its damned expensive.”

The recent­ly sched­uled exe­cu­tion of Darold Stenson was stayed by both state and fed­er­al courts.

(J. Farley, ​“Appeals keep death row inmates fight­ing for life,” Kitsap Sun, November 30, 2008). See Arbritrariness.

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