In a statement released on Monday, state Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, criticized a bill he says contains language removing state law that enacts the death penalty.
According to Walsh, Senate Bill 5087 is labeled as a “technical fix” removing language from state law the Washington state Supreme Court has identified as “defects or omissions.” In Walsh’s view, the controversy on SB 5087 is rooted in a disagreement as to whether the state Supreme Court has ruled the death penalty unconstitutional.
During a recent floor debate on SB 5087, Walsh pointed to the state Supreme Court’s 2018 ruling in State v. Gregory in which the court refrained from declaring the death penalty “per se unconstitutional.”
“The debate over Washington’s use of the death penalty should be held openly and publicly — not rushed along furtively on a holiday evening,” Walsh said. “How many people in Washington were able to see or hear this important information? The sad answer is very few. On Good Friday, with few media outlets or people paying attention, the House debated and passed this extremely divisive measure on a nearly party-line vote. The bill claims to be a collection of narrow, technical corrections. It is not. In fact, it’s a fundamental change to state law with regard to the state’s use of the death penalty in certain cases of violent crimes.”
Walsh called the justifications for the bill “brittle and legalistic,” adding they are based on a convoluted reading of the court’s decision in State v. Gregory. Walsh argued the court’s opinion declared the manner in which the death penalty is carried to be arbitrary and did not call the death penalty itself unconstitutional. According to Walsh, because of the court’s ruling, the section of SB 5087 pertaining to the death penalty doesn’t belong in the bill.
“During floor debate, we heard ardent, sensible arguments that without the possibility of a death penalty, some mass murderers would refuse to cooperate with law enforcement agencies. Killers would hide the details of their crimes-including the locations of their victims’ remains. We also heard that bad laws like SB 5087 deny those victims’ families closure and justice. These are strong reasons why Washington needs the death penalty to be an option, even if it’s one only used rarely,” Walsh said.
Walsh said SB 5087 is “just one more sad example” of the interests of people who commit crimes being placed above those of victims and their families. He also argued many similar bills have been “rushed” through the Legislature in the past few years.
“Instead of burying the issue in a bill as a not-so-technical fix, the people should be allowed to weigh in with open, meaningful debate. That did not happen with this bill,” Walsh said.
