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Northwest Lawmakers Grapple With Death Penalty Legislation

Reuven Carlyle, a Democrat from Seattle, testifies before the Senate Law and Justice Committee. A bill he is sponsoring would do away with the death penalty in Washington state.
TVW
/
TVW
Reuven Carlyle, a Democrat from Seattle, testifies before the Senate Law and Justice Committee. A bill he is sponsoring would do away with the death penalty in Washington state.

Reuven Carlyle, a Democrat from Seattle, testifies before the Senate Law and Justice Committee. A bill he is sponsoring would do away with the death penalty in Washington state.
Credit TVW / TVW
/
TVW
Reuven Carlyle, a Democrat from Seattle, testifies before the Senate Law and Justice Committee. A bill he is sponsoring would do away with the death penalty in Washington state.

Four Bills in Washington’s legislature this year offer differing views on the death penalty following a state Supreme Court decision last year.  A similar debate is playing out in Oregon. 

Companion bills in Washington’sHouseandSenatewould replace a death sentence with life in prison without parole for anyone convicted of first degree aggravated murder. Senator Reuven Carlyle, a Democrat from Seattle, spoke before the Senate Law and Justice Committee.

 

“I think cleaning up our statues in a responsible way is a good step in terms of modernizing how our state statute reads on this issue,” he said.

 

Last year, the Washington’s Supreme Courtruled the state’s death penalty unconstitutional, citing racial bias and arbitrary application in its decision.

 

On Tuesday, the Catholic Bishops of Washington released a statement in support of Carlyle’s bill. The bishops group has long been on record as opposing capital punishment, while stating their deep concern for families and loved ones of victims of violent crimes, the group said in a statement.

 

Department of Corrections Secretary Dick Morgan spoke before the Senate Law and Justice Committee Tuesday on behalf of four other retired DOC Secretaries, who all say they support doing away with the death penalty in Washington. Morgan told the committee it takes more than 100 personnel to carry out an execution.

 

“The cost of managing those sentenced to death is extraordinarily high for the department. It requires a great deal of resources,” he said.

 

Two other companion bills in theHouseandSenatewould convert death sentences to life without parole for anyone convicted of first degree aggravated murder. But two other companion bills maintain the death penalty in Washington. According to those proposals, the death penalty would only apply if a murder was committed by someone who is already incarcerated.

 

In Oregon, legislatorsare also mulling changesto the state’s death penalty. One plan could further limit the definition of aggravated murder -- the only crime punishable by death in Oregon. But a bill in that state’s legislature has yet to be formally introduced.

Copyright 2019 Northwest News Network

Emily Schwing started stuffing envelopes for KUER FM90 in Salt Lake City, and something that was meant to be a volunteer position turned into a multi-year summer internship. After developing her own show for Carleton Collegeââââ
Emily Schwing
Emily Schwing comes to the Inland Northwest by way of Alaska, where she covered social and environmental issues with an Arctic spin as well as natural resource development, wildlife management and Alaska Native issues for nearly a decade. Her work has been heard on National Public Radio’s programs like “Morning Edition” and “All things Considered.” She has also filed for Public Radio International’s “The World,” American Public Media’s “Marketplace,” and various programs produced by the BBC and the CBC. She has also filed stories for Scientific American, Al Jazeera America and Arctic Deeply.