[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----WASHINGTON
October 11 WASHINGTON: Washington Supreme Court tosses out state’s death penalty The ruling makes Washington the latest state to do away with capital punishment. The court was unanimous in its order that the eight people presently on death row have their sentences converted to life in prison. Washington state’s Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the death penalty, as applied, violates its Constitution. The ruling Thursday makes Washington the latest state to do away with capital punishment. The court was unanimous in its order that the eight people currently on death row have their sentences converted to life in prison. Five justices said the “death penalty is invalid because it is imposed in an arbitrary and racially biased manner.” “Given the manner in which it is imposed, the death penalty also fails to serve any legitimate penological goals,” the justices wrote. Four other justices, in a concurrence, wrote that while they agreed with the majority’s conclusions and invalidation of the death penalty, “additional state constitutional principles compel this result.” Gov. Jay Inslee, a one-time supporter of capital punishment, had imposed a moratorium on the death penalty in 2014, saying that no executions would take place while he’s in office. In a written statement, Inslee called the ruling “a hugely important moment in our pursuit for equal and fair application of justice.” “The court makes it perfectly clear that capital punishment in our state has been imposed in an ‘arbitrary and racially biased manner,’ is ‘unequally applied’ and serves no criminal justice goal,” Inslee wrote. The ruling was in the case of Allen Eugene Gregory, who was convicted of raping, robbing and killing Geneine Harshfield, a 43-year-old woman, in 1996. His lawyers said the death penalty is arbitrarily applied and that it is not applied proportionally, as the state Constitution requires. In its ruling Thursday, the high court did not reconsider any of Gregory’s arguments pertaining to guilty, noting that his conviction for aggravated first degree murder “has already been appealed and affirmed by this court.” (source: Associated Press) ___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----WASHINGTON
Governor Inslee’s remarks announcing a capital punishment moratorium Feb. 11, 2014 Remarks as prepared Good morning. I’m here today to talk to you about an important criminal justice issue. Over the course of the past year, my staff and I have been carefully reviewing the status of capital punishment in Washington State. We’ve spoken to people in favor and strongly opposed to this complex and motional issue, including law enforcement officers, prosecutors, former directors of the Department of Corrections, and the family members of the homicide victims. We thoroughly studied the cases that condemned nine men to death. I recently visited the state penitentiary in Walla Walla and I spoke to the men and women who work there. I saw death row and toured the execution chamber, where lethal injections and hangings take place. Following this review, and in accordance with state law, I have decided to impose a moratorium on executions while I’m Governor of the state of Washington. Equal justice under the law is the state’s primary responsibility. And in death penalty cases, I’m not convinced equal justice is being served. The use of the death penalty in this state is unequally applied, sometimes dependent on the budget of the county where the crime occurred. Let me acknowledge that there are many good protections built into Washington State’s death penalty law. But there have been too many doubts raised about capital punishment. There are too many flaws in the system. And when the ultimate decision is death there is too much at stake to accept an imperfect system. Let me say clearly that this policy decision is not about the nine men currently on death row in Walla Walla. I don’t question their guilt or the gravity of their crimes. They get no mercy from me. This action today does not commute their sentences or issue any pardons to any offender. But I do not believe their horrific offenses override the problems that exist in our capital punishment system. And that’s why I am imposing a moratorium on executions. If a death penalty case comes to my desk for action, I will issue a reprieve. What this means is that those on death row will remain in prison for the rest of their lives. Nobody is getting out of prison -- period. I have previously supported capital punishment. And I don’t question the hard work and judgment of the county prosecutors who bring these cases or the judges who rule on them. But my review of the law in Washington State and my responsibilities as Governor have led me to reevaluate that position. I recognize that many people will disagree with this decision. I respect everyone's beliefs on this and have no right to question or judge them. With my action today I expect Washington State will join a growing national conversation about capital punishment. I welcome that and I’m confident that our citizens will engage in this very important debate. I’d like to tell Washingtonians about what lead me to this decision. First, the practical reality is that those convicted of capital offenses are, in fact, rarely executed. Since 1981, the year our current capital laws were put in place, 32 defendants have been sentenced to die. Of those, 19, or 60%, had their sentences overturned. One man was set free and 18 had their sentences converted to life in prison. When the majority of death penalty sentences lead to reversal, the entire system itself must be called into question. Second, the costs associated with prosecuting a capital case far outweigh the price of locking someone up for life without the possibility of parole. Counties spend hundreds of thousands of dollars – and often many millions -- simply to get a case to trial. And after trial, hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent on appellate costs for decades. Studies have shown that a death penalty case from start to finish is more expensive than keeping someone in prison for the rest of their lives – even if they live to be 100 years of age. Third, death sentences are neither swift nor certain. Seven of the nine men on death row committed their crimes more than 15 years ago, including one from 26 years ago. While they sit on death row and pursue appeal after appeal, the families of their victims must constantly revisit their grief at the additional court proceedings. Fourth, there is no credible evidence that the death penalty is a deterrent to murder. That’s according to work done by the National Academy of Sciences, among other groups. And finally, our death penalty is not always applied to the most heinous offenders. That is a system that falls short of equal justice under the law and makes it difficult for the State to justify the use of the death penalty. In 2006, state Supreme Court Justice Charles Johnson wrote that in our state, “the death penalty is like lightening, randomly striking some defendants and not others.” I believe that’s
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----WASHINGTON
Dec. 1 WASHINGTON: Clemency board hears Stenson petition Death penalty opponents argued Monday before the state Clemency and Pardons Board that more DNA testing should be performed in the case of death row inmate Darold Ray Stenson, scheduled to die Wednesday. Death penalty opponents argued Monday before the state Clemency and Pardons Board that more DNA testing should be performed in the case of death row inmate Darold Ray Stenson, scheduled to die Wednesday. Stenson, 56, was convicted of 2 counts of aggravated murder for the 1993 slaying of his wife, Denise, and a business partner, Frank Hoerner, at his Clallam County exotic bird farm. Although his execution has been scheduled for Wednesday, judges in 2 separate courts have imposed stays. The Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty filed a clemency petition on Stenson's behalf before clemency board against Stenson's wishes, because he has always maintained that he is innocent of the murders. Coalition President Jeff Ellis asked the board Monday to table the matter until the two stays are resolved in the courts. However, he also argued that additional DNA testing could implicate others in the crime. Last week, the state asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider lifting a federal stay to the execution. In that case, U.S. District Judge Lonny Suko in Yakima approved request by Stenson attorneys, who argued that the state recently revised its procedure for administering lethal injections without previously announcing any changes or going through a rule-making process. Clallam County Superior Court Judge Kenneth Williams issued the 2nd stay on Nov. 25 after learning a former inmate had come forward as a possible witness. Williams initially had declined to issue a stay so requested DNA testing could be conducted, but reversed his decision after hearing details of the possible new evidence. According to a court transcript, the new witness, Robert Shinn, claimed a second man had told him that Stenson was not guilty and had been framed. Shinn said both he and the 2nd man were high on drugs at the time of the conversation, about 8 years ago, the transcript says. Clallam County Prosecuting Attorney Deb Kelly on Wednesday filed a request that the state Supreme Court review Williams' decision. (source: Associated Press)
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----WASHINGTON
URGENT ACTION APPEAL Take action online at: http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/ index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoEb=2590179template=x.ascxaction=11478 24 November 2008 UA 323/08 - Death penalty USA (Washington State) Darold Stenson (m), white, aged 55 Darold Stenson is scheduled to be executed in Washington State on 3 December. He has spent 14 years on death row for two murders committed in 1993. In the early hours of 25 March 1993, Darold Stenson telephoned the police from his home at Dakota Farms in Clallam County in the west of Washington State, where he ran a business raising and selling exotic birds. He told the operator that Frank has just shot my wife, and himself, I think. When the police arrived, Darold Stenson took them to a bedroom where his business partner Frank Clement Hoerner was dead on the floor with a bullet wound to the head and a revolver nearby. Stenson then took the police to another bedroom where his wife, Denise Ann Stenson, was on the bed, also with a bullet wound to the head. She was airlifted to hospital, but died the following day. A subsequent investigation concluded that Hoerner had not killed himself, but had been hit in the head outside and dragged into the bedroom where he had been shot in the head at close range. The investigation also revealed that Darold Stenson owed Hoerner a large amount of money, and also that he had taken out a life insurance policy on Denise Stenson. Darold Stenson was arrested on 8 April 1993, and brought to trial a few months later. He was convicted on 11 August 1994 of the two murders. After a sentencing hearing on 18 August, he was sentenced to death. Darold Stenson has not filed a clemency petition. He has, however, maintained his innocence of the crime and has been pursuing a stay of execution in the courts in a bid to obtain modern DNA testing of evidence from the crime. BACKGROUND INFORMATION Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases, unconditionally. Today, some 137 countries are abolitionist in law or practice. In 2007, the UN General Assembly voted for a moratorium on executions pending global abolition. There have been 1,135 executions in the USA since judicial killing resumed there in 1977, four of them in Washington State. There have been 36 executions in the USA this year. The last execution in Washington was carried out in August 2001. Executions in Washington State are carried out by lethal injection unless the condemned prisoner chooses hanging as the preferred execution method. Executions are carried out at the Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla. The death penalty in the USA is marked by arbitrariness, discrimination and error. More than 120 people have been released from death rows in the country since 1976 after evidence of their innocence emerged. DNA testing played a major role in proving the innocence of more than a dozen of these prisoners. Studies have consistently shown that race, particularly race of victim, plays a role in who is sentenced to death. Eighty per cent of those executed in the USA since 1977 were convicted of killing white victims. Geographical disparities are also evident, with a handful of states accounting for a vast majority of the country's executions, and some counties accounting for disproportionate use of the death penalty within states. The quality of legal representation has also repeatedly been shown to be a factor in US capital justice. The myth that the worst of the worst crimes and offenders receive the death penalty in the USA became an issue in Washington State in recent years after Gary Ridgway avoided the death penalty in 2004 despite confessing to having committed 48 murders, mainly of prostitutes and runaways. The prosecution agreed to a plea arrangement whereby Ridgway would provide information about the crimes in return for a life sentence. In March 2006, a divided Washington State Supreme Court considered the issue in the case of a state death row inmate convicted of three murders. The five in the majority wrote that the moral question of whether those on death row can be executed while a serial killer is given a life sentence is best left to the legislature. The four dissenting judges argued: When Gary Ridgway, the worst mass murderer in this state's history, escapes the death penalty, serious flaws become apparent. The dissenting opinion pointed out that the problem went beyond the Ridgway case: If the Ridgway case was the only case at the far end of the spectrum, perhaps his penalty of life in prison rather than death could be explained or dismissed. Ridgway, however, is not the only case in which a mass murderer escaped death. When the Ridgway and other cases of people convicted of serial killing are considered, the dissenters stated, the staggering flaw in the system of administration of the death penalty in Washington is revealed. These cases exemplify the arbitrariness with which the penalty of death is
