Death Penalty in Washington State
by Brenda Collier
So far 2014 has been a great year for those of us who want to abolish the death penalty in Washington State. In February Governor Inslee announced a moratorium and a week or so later the Seattle Times reversed its position and came out against the death penalty. We need to take advantage of this opportunity and increase our efforts to build grassroots support, so that the legislature will abolish the death penalty in the 2015 session.
There are many reasons to abolish the death penalty. For me it is a moral issue – my commitment to nonviolence means I am a pacifist and against killing anyone. But, if we are trying to convince others that the death penalty is wrong, then the issues that resonate most with people are
- The risk of executing the innocent.
- It costs more than life without parole.
- It is unfair.
- It does not work.
The risk of executing the innocent. There is no way to reverse a death sentence! There are now 144 people who have been exonerated from Death Row – that is more than 10% of the people currently on Death Row in the USA.
It costs more than life without parole. The many required legal safeguards, necessary to try to prevent the execution of an innocent person, make a death penalty case much more expensive; extra resources are needed every step of the way – investigation, jury selection sentencing, and the appeal process …
It is unfair. It is not the worst of the worst who get the death penalty. Gary Ridgeway confessed to killing 49 women and got a life sentence. It depends in which county you live. Since 1981 the death penalty has been sought in 67% of cases in Thurston County and not at all in Okanagan and Yakima Counties. It is too expensive for smaller counties to seek the death penalty – the million or so it would cost could bankrupt them. Receiving a Death Sentence has more to do with income level and race (of both victim and accused) than the realities of the crime.
It does not work. Since 1981 nearly 80% of death sentences have been overturned, most of which resulted in a sentence of life without parole. The cost of a failed death penalty attempt could be better used in many ways like funding public safety and crime prevention.
I want a system that is based on justice not vengeance. The nine men on death row in WA State committed horrible crimes, but taking a life is vigilante justice. Victim’s families deserve that the punishment is timely, fair and rational but not State sanctioned vengeance.
Safe and Just Alternatives (SJA) is a coalition working to abolish the death penalty in Washington State. See the SJA web site – www.sjawa.org for more information. The ACLU and WCADP (Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty) have staff and budget working on SJA. I represent WWFOR on the WCADP board and on SJA.
In the rest of the country, eighteen states have abolished the death penalty and New Hampshire is poised to become the nineteenth. Help work to ensure that Washington is the twentieth.