Why The Death Penalty Is Unconstitutional In Washington

OLYMPIA, WA - The death penalty was effectively outlawed in Washington Thursday after the state Supreme Court ruled that the practice violates the state Constitution. The ruling comes after an appeal from a death row inmate who argued that the state executes criminals "arbitrarily."

A moratorium on the death penalty has been in effect since February 2014, when Gov. Jay Inslee said he would decline to order any more executions. The last execution happened in 2010 when Cal Coburn Brown died by lethal injection for the murder of murder of Holly Washa by order of former governor Christine Gregoire.

"The death penalty is invalid because it is imposed in an arbitrary and racially biased manner," the court's opinion declared.

The ruling comes from an appeal brought by Allen Eugene Gregory, who raped and murdered a Tacoma woman in 1996. Gregory charged that the state handed out the death penalty arbitrarily. Other death row prisoners have made the same argument, citing, for example, that Gary Ridgway was sentenced to life in prison after killing dozens of people.

"[T]he death penalty is unequally applied—sometimes by where the crime took place, or the county of residence, or the available budgetary resources at any given point in time, or the race of the defendant. The death penalty, as administered in our state, fails to serve any legitimate penological goal; thus, it violates article I, section 14 of our state constitution," the opinion reads.

Attorney General Bob Ferguson said Thursday he'll submit legislation to the state Legislature to repeal the death penalty from state law - the second time he has submitted such a request.

Washington joins 17 other states, including New York, Michigan, and Massachusetts, with no death penalty. There are eight men on death row at the state penitentiary in Walla Walla - the longest, Jonathan Lee Gentry, has been there for 28 years.

You can read the Supreme Court's full ruling here.

Photo by Virginia Department of Corrections via Getty Images