King County prosecutor calls on Legislature to abolish the state's death penalty



SEATTLE -- King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg on Friday called on the Legislature to repeal the state's death penalty law, saying it "is broken and cannot be fixed."

In a op-ed column in The Seattle Times, Satterberg wrote, "I call on the Legislature to repeal the law and make the punishment for aggravated murder a sentence of life without the possibility of parole by supporting legislation like Senate Bill 6052 this session to abolish the death penalty."

He said, "It is my duty to report that the death penalty law in our state is broken and cannot be fixed. It no longer serves the interests of public safety, criminal justice, or the needs of victims."

The prosecutor noted that Washington voters approved the death penalty by initiative in 1980 and that, since then, the state has carried out only two contested executions. "Three men were executed as 'volunteers' after instructing their attorneys not to appeal the jury verdicts," he said.

Satterberg said eight men currently sit in prison with death sentences at various stages of appeals, but noted that Gov. Jay Inslee has imposed a moratorium on carrying out any death penalty sentences.

"We don’t need the death penalty because we already have the equivalent penalty in a true life sentence without possibility of release. A person serving life without possibility of parole will die in prison, unless granted clemency by the governor. The fight over the death penalty is in reality an elaborate effort to hasten the date of the inmate’s death, and to permit a state employee to eventually administer a lethal dose of drugs. The uncertain path to execution in our state may take 20 years, and consume millions of dollars in tax resources to pay for teams of lawyers to litigate in the state and federal courts. This fight is simply not worth the time, the money, nor the delay in the delivery of justice."

Satterberg added, "I am also convinced that the death penalty as presently administered does not serve the interests of family members of murder victims. Families understandably want the maximum punishment for the killer of their loved one, but the issue of the death penalty sometimes divides families. When we explain that it takes on average 20 years to finally exhaust appeals and then the case faces the roadblock of an indefinite moratorium, most families say 'no thank you.'"

He said that "the soaring and uncontrollable costs of capital litigation" -- sometimes millions of dollars in just one case -- threatens to bankrupt smaller counties, and some are not able to pursue the death penalty "even if they wanted to" because of the legal costs.

He went on to write that while it can certainly be argued "from a moral standpoint" that those who commit atrocious crimes "do not deserve to live.

"The more important question is, however, not what they deserve, but rather what do we deserve as citizens of Washington state."