More than 7,000 homicide cases have been filed in Washington since 1981, but only 30 death sentences have been handed down.
State officials say that’s partially because Washington’s death penalty law is narrowly structured, but it’s also because of an appellate court system that historically has been reluctant to allow an execution to take place at the Washington State Penitentiary.
Of the 30 death sentence cases, four men have been executed; eight are on death row; and 18 have been reversed by either the state Supreme Court or the federal 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco. The 81 percent reversal rate is about double the national figure of 43 percent, calculated from 1977 through 2004.
A 2004 report by the Washington Death Penalty Assistance Center said the reversals “have been attributed to all aspects of the criminal justice system,” including constitutionally prohibited errors, judicial errors, prosecutorial and jury misconduct, and ineffective defense counsel.
Eight of the state’s death penalty cases that have been reversed were overturned on federal appeals decided by the 9th Circuit, while the state Supreme Court has overturned 10.
The average length of appeals pending for the eight men currently awaiting execution now has reached more than 12 years. (Walla Walla Union-Bulletin)
