By Leona Vaughn

WNPA News Service

The death penalty would no longer be a sentencing option in Washington state if lawmakers enact a bill passed by the Senate on Friday, Jan. 31.

Senate Bill 5339 has bipartisan support to eliminate the death penalty — a punishment the Supreme Court ruled as unconstituional in 2018. Gov. Jay Inslee also put a moratorium on it in 2014.

Instead of a death sentence, “all persons convicted of aggravated first degree murder must be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of release or parole,” according to the Senate Bill Report.

During Friday’s Senate floor debate, Sen. Reuven Carlyle, D-Seattle, the primary sponsor of the bill, said the death penalty, “is a punishment that simply does not work effectively. It’s not economically efficient, it’s not applied equitably across rural and urban, and other jurisdictions, and there’s a great deal of subjectivity and discretion in a policy that does not fit well.”

The bill, passed by the Senate with a vote of 28-18, now moves on to the House for further consideration.

Van De Wege votes against

State senator Kevin Van De Wege voted against the bill, and explained his vote in a press release earlier today (Jan. 31):

“Today the Senate considered legislation on one of the deepest existential questions we will ever address, both as a society and as individuals — whether our courts should have the ability to impose the death penalty.

“As this is literally a life-and-death issue, with the highest stakes imaginable, I feel you deserve to know my reasoning. There are many arguments on both sides of this issue but, for me, one outweighs all others.

“I voted against abolishing the death penalty in Washington state, first and foremost, because it is an effective and invaluable tool used in criminal prosecutions and investigations.

“Probably the most well-known example of this involved the Green River Killer, when prosecutors used the threat of a death sentence to leverage Gary Ridgeway into divulging the identities and locations of numerous women he had killed. By agreeing not to seek the death penalty, prosecutors were able to learn the identities of 41 additional victims and bring closure to many families and friends of those long-missing women.

“More common examples occur when prosecutors use the threat of the death penalty to compel a criminal to plead guilty to a lesser offense or sentence, rather than risk a trial and jury verdict, or to compel a criminal to reveal additional parties to a homicide. While the type of case may vary, the death penalty remains an indisputably useful tool that enables prosecutors to bring more criminals to justice and provide solace to families of homicide victims.

“I respect the seriousness with which my colleagues on both sides of this issue reached their conclusions. This was not a vote I cast lightly. Far from it. But it is a vote I cast with conviction. It’s the right policy, for the right reasons.”