source: Equal Justice Initiative

published: 26 April 2023

Image Credit: Falkenpost at www.FreeRangeStock.com

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill on Friday that officially removes capital punishment from state law. Senate Bill 5087 removes state laws that have been held unconstitutional by the Washington Supreme Court.

In 2018, the Washington Supreme Court unanimously declared the state’s death penalty unconstitutional “because it is imposed in an arbitrary and racially biased manner.”

The court evaluated evidence of racial bias in the state’s death penalty, including an exhaustive statistical study showing that Black defendants were four and a half times more likely to be sentenced to death than similarly situated white defendants.

The death sentences of eight people who were then on Washington’s death row were vacated as part of the court’s decision.

But the decision did not prevent state lawmakers from proposing new death penalty laws, and the state’s old capital punishment statute remained on the books.

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