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Washington House Committee Holds Death Penalty Hearing

gephardtdaily.com

A Washington House committee held a public hearing Wednesday on a bill that would abolish the death penalty. Washington is one of 31 states that allow convicted criminals to be put to death. But Governor Inslee declared a moratorium on executions in 2014 and several high-ranking state officials, including Attorney General Bob Ferguson, support the repeal.

Washington has had the death penalty for most of its years as a state. But Attorney General Ferguson and others, including his predecessor, Rob McKenna, say it’s time to stop putting criminals to death. There are the moral questions and people made those at the public hearing Wednesday before the House Judiciary Committee.

But now supporters of repeal are making a financial argument. Peter Collins is one of the co-authors of a recent Seattle University study that concluded the death penalty is more expensive than giving convicted murderers life sentences. Collins says he found the same result during subsequent studies he conducted in Oregon and Oklahoma.

“The death penalty cases are becoming more expensive, as exemplified by three King County cases which cost taxpayers over 15-million dollars and failed to result in death sentences," Collins said. "And I would note that because the death penalty is different, the constitution prevents you from cutting corners to make these cases cheaper.”

Collins says some local prosecutors in Washington have decided not to seek the death penalty in murder cases because their county governments cannot afford to try them.

But death penalty advocates such as former prosecutor Brian Moran say that study does not consider all of the financial nuances. He argues the deterrent value of the death penalty actually leads to cost savings in some cases where defendants plead guilty.

“They don’t do it because they feel bad. They don’t do it because they want to spare the victim’s family, the horrors of a trial," Moran said. "They do it because they make a cost-benefit analysis that they want to spare their lives and by doing it, they’ll plead guilty. Those pleas come fast. They come in the form of a mitigation package and in every single aggravated murder plea to life without parole I’ve taken, I would estimate, anecdotally perhaps, but the cost to the criminal justice system is under $100,000.”

Though the legislation has received a hearing, the chairman of this committee says she won’t put it to a vote before Friday’s deadline for moving bills out of their original committees.

Our thanks to TVW for the sound from the hearing.