Washington legislators should end death penalty

The reprieve for death row inmate Clark Richard Elmore on Dec. 29 fulfilled Gov. Inslee’s promise to maintain a moratorium on the death penalty. But, the governor’s reprieve should not have been necessary. Washington state legislators should find the courage to abolish the death penalty in our state.

Elmore’s crime was heinous, and his victims deserve resolution, but the death penalty is not about any one particular crime. Rather, the death penalty is an institution, and as an institution it is riddled with inequalities. Nationally, African-Americans make up approximately 14 percent of the general population, but 42 percent of the death row population. Washington is no exception to this disparately. A 2014 study from the University of Washington found that jurors in the state were three times more likely to recommend a death sentence for a black defendant than they were for a white defendant guilty of a similar case.

Globally, America’s use of the death is a scandal. For the past seven years, the United States has been the only country in the western hemisphere to execute its citizens. It shares company with China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan as one of the top five executioner countries in the world.

The death penalty’s abolition is long overdue, and it will not end nationally unless states take leadership on the issue. Washington legislatures should end the death penalty and indicate to other states that we need to purge this heinous institution from our political fabric.

This story was originally published January 14, 2017 at 6:52 PM with the headline "Washington legislators should end death penalty."