The Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

04/14/2023

Last week the Washington state legislature finally struck references to capital punishment from the books. Gov. Inslee is expected to sign the bill in the coming days.

On September 10th, 2010, Cal Brown was executed by lethal injection at Washington State Penitentiary, in Walla Walla. He is likely to be the last person executed in Washington state.

02/18/2022

Fifty-six elected prosecutors from 26 states pledged to work to effectively end the death penalty, including King County DA Dan Satterberg. Link to actual letter in the comments.

"We have all now arrived at the same inexorable conclusion: Our country's system of capital punishment is broken," said a joint statement signed by 56 prosecutors.

01/26/2022

𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗴𝗶𝘂𝗺 𝘃𝗲𝗵𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗼𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵 𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘁𝘆.
That’s why we join the EU🇪🇺 in calling on governors of and to grant clemency to and scheduled to be executed on Jan. 27.

The death penalty is a violation of human dignity, it is a cruel, inhuman punishment. The global fight against the death penalty is a priority of the Belgian human rights policy.

Diplomatie.Belgium, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty,
Death Penalty Information Center, European Union in the United States, ECPM, Embassy of Belgium in Vienna - Permanent Representation to the UN & IAEA, Permanent Representation of Belgium to the Council of Europe, National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, The Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, Innocence Project, International Commission against the Death Penalty.

03/11/2021

02/24/2021

Witness to Innocence in National Geographic!

These people continue to contribute to ending the death penalty across the US and the world. Sabrina, Kirk, Randall, and Juan (all featured in this article) have spent time in Washington State and contributed to the end of the death penalty here.

Since 1973, more than 8,700 people in the U.S. have been sent to death row. At least 182 weren’t guilty—their lives upended by a system that nearly killed them.

02/02/2021

01/28/2021

VA Senate expected to vote on abolition bill Friday 1/29.

Race continues to influence who gets the . A defendant is three times more likely to be sentenced to death if the victim is white than if they are Black.

Racial bias was a key reason the death penalty was struck down in Washington State.

01/28/2021

“As the deterrence rationale proved hard to justify, and the retributive rationale began to sound too angry and vengeful, both have been replaced with a kinder, gentler-sounding justification: by carrying out ex*****ons we can honor the victims and help their families heal.”

Despite its popularity as a justification for the death penalty, closure has no basis in psychological research ... research has shown that families in states that do not have the death penalty are emotionally and physically healthier than victims in states that do and that victims’ families often feel re-victimized when an ex*****on does not bring about the closure they had hoped for.

“The most telling finding is that a number of family members feel relieved simply because they are finally free of the legal system,” Bandes writes. “..., much of the pain comes from the capital system itself—lengthy, heart wrenching legal proceedings in which the family would be called to testify and the defendant would remain at center stage for years.”

“As the deterrence rationale proved hard to justify, and the retributive rationale began to sound too angry and vengeful, both have been replaced with a kinder, gentler-sounding justification: by carrying out ex*****ons we can honor the victims and help their families heal.” Despite its populari...

01/27/2021

Signers of this letter asking the Biden Administration to end the federal death penalty included 3 leaders from Washington State:

Bobbe J. Bridge
Former Associate Justice, Washington State Supreme Court

Dan Satterberg
Prosecuting Attorney, King County, Washington

Norm Stamper
Former Chief, Seattle Police Department, Washington

“We should not leave the lives of all people still on federal death row — and many more who will become entangled with the federal system — in the hands of future administrations.”

Today, nearly 100 criminal justice leaders – including DAs, Attorneys General, former US Attorneys and DOJ officials, and law enforcement heads from around the nation – sent a letter to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris urging them to take all actions within their power to immediately and definitively end the death penalty in the United States, including commuting the sentences of all people on federal death row, dismantling the death chamber at Terre Haute, urging the AG to instruct all federal prosecutors to not seek the death penalty in future cases, supporting and incentivizing state efforts to end capital punishment, and supporting legislation to end the federal death penalty.

Read the statement and see the full list of signatories:https://fairandjustprosecution.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/FJP-Biden-Death-Penalty-Joint-Letter.pdf

11/13/2020

There have been 14 ex*****ons in the United States so far in 2020. Fully half of those (7) were federal ex*****ons. The current (outgoing) administration restarted federal ex*****ons this summer after a 17 year hiatus. 3 more federal ex*****ons are scheduled for 2020:

November 19th: Orlando Hall
December 8th: Lisa Montgomery
December 10th: Brandon Bernard

As the Trump administration rushes to execute more and more people, my friends are dying—and I might be next.

06/17/2020

Scheduled ex*****on dates summer 2020:
July 13
July 15
July 17
August 28

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has set new dates to begin executing federal death-row inmates following a monthslong legal battle over the plan to resume the ex*****ons for the first...