Yesterday, Governor Jay Inslee announced that he will not be executing people during his term as governor of Washington. After a year of much debate, he came to the conclusion that there are too many doubts about capital punishment and too many flaws in the system. According to the Seattle Times, Inslee explained that the death penalty, “is applied unequally in the state of Washington, death-row inmates are rarely executed, life in prison is less expensive than prosecuting a death sentence from start to finish; and that there is no evidence it deters murder.”
Right now, 18 out of 50 states, including the District of Columbia ban the death penalty, Washington now being one of them. Inslee’s decision was a modest use of executive power. In other words, it allows freedom of expression. When it comes to the reprieve versus commutation debate, under the suspension, if a death penalty case comes across Inslee’s desk, he’ll issue a reprieve, so the inmate will just stay in prison. The death penalty is certainly a national controversial issue that can go one way or another. With death sentences and executions down, Governor Inslee came to a final verdict that, “It’s not right, so I’m exercising that decision-making authority as governor of the state of Washington. I’m also at peace with this decision.”
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