FILE – In this Nov. 20, 2008, file photo, the execution chamber at the Washington State Penitentiary is shown with the witness gallery behind glass, at right, in Walla Walla, Wash. Washington state’s Supreme Court ruled Oct. 11, 2018, that the death penalty violates its Constitution. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren, File)
(OLYMPIA, Wash.) — The legislature passed House Bill 5087 on Friday, eliminating the death penalty from Washington state law.
Capital punishment had already been effectively eliminated in Washington following a State Supreme Court ruling in 2018.
In that decision, the justices found the death penalty was unequally applied, and thus violated the state constitution. But the Court was careful to say that capital punishment itself was not unconstitutional ‘per se,’ and that lawmakers could bring back a constitutional version if they chose to do so.
HB 5087 was what was called a ‘housekeeping bill;’ one in which language in state law is revised to conform with state and federal court rulings.
The issue was hotly debated, with Democrats in favor of the measure and Republicans largely opposed.
Governor Inslee, who in 2014 announced his own moratorium on the death penalty, is expected to sign the bill into law.
Cal Coburn Brown was the last person put to death in Washington state. He was executed by lethal injection in 2010.
