Washington Senate passes bill to abolish death penalty
Inmates awaiting a death sentence are placed in this holding cell, photographed in 2008, until their walk to the execution chamber at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. The state Senate has passed legislation to abolish Washington’s death penalty. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) (Ted S. Warren/The Associated Press)
February 14, 2018 at 7:02 pm
The bill passed on a bipartisan vote and now heads to the House for consideration. Previous efforts to ban the death penalty have failed in recent years, despite a moratorium put in place by Gov. Jay Inslee in 2014.
UPDATE : March 8, 2018
Not this year.
The death penalty will live on in Washington after the latest effort to abolish the practice came to a screeching halt in the final week of the 2018 legislative session.
Senate bill 6052 marked the most successful attempt in the past five years — and possibly ever — to erase the state’s death penalty and replace it with life in prison without parole.
Washington Senate passes bill to abolish death penalty
31 states have the death penalty
Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wyoming
19 states and DC have abolished the death penalty
Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, Wisconsin
