Replacing the Death Penalty
The legislation would have replaced the death penalty with life in prison without possibility of parole. In addition to being the ultimate denial of civil liberties, the death penalty in Washington has proven costly and unfair, and it does not deter crime. The cost to local government, in particular, is staggering—at least three-quarters of a million dollars per case. Life without parole is a sensible alternative that is far less expensive.
The death penalty poses an unacceptable risk of executing the innocent. Since its reinstatement in 1977, at least 124 men and women have been released from death row nationally—some only minutes away from execution. The death penalty is also racially biased. In Washington, prosecutors have sought death sentences almost three times as often if one or more of the victims were white. Unlike the death penalty, a sentence of life without parole allows mistakes to be corrected or new evidence to come to light.
