WP: Washington Supreme Court strikes down state’s death penalty, saying it is ‘arbitrary and racially biased’

[visionary]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2018/10/11/washington-supreme-court-strikes-down-states-death-penalty-saying-it-is-arbitrary-and-racially-biased/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.29e2f86f0643

Quote

 

Washington Supreme Court strikes down state’s death penalty, saying it is ‘arbitrary and racially biased’

 

The Washington state Supreme Court on Thursday unanimously struck down the death penalty there as unconstitutional and “racially biased,” a ruling that makes it the latest in a string of states to abandon capital punishment in recent years.

 

The order will not stop any scheduled executions because Washington state has already frozen its death penalty under a moratorium by Gov. Jay Inslee (D) in 2014. But the court’s order, which declares that death sentences in the state should be converted to life in prison, is a sweeping rejection of capital punishment at a time when it is being used less nationwide and as states are struggling to obtain the drugs needed for lethal injections.

 

In their opinion, the justices focused on what they said was the unequal use of the death penalty, describing it as a punishment meted out haphazardly depending on little more than geography or timing.

 

[DCSaints_fan]

Some crimes are so horrific to me I'd really want them to execute the perpetrators, but I can understand why people want to abolish the death penalty.  Especially when you hear some of these stories out of Texas where prosecutors have done some pretty shady stuff in order to get defendants on death row. 

[LadySkinsFan]

I agree with this.

 

However, I have to say that when Florida executed Ted Bundy I felt a relief that he wasn't on the planet anymore.