PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Washington state Governor Jay Inslee signed a bill into law Thursday that abolishes the death penalty.
Senate Bill 5087 removes multiple state laws that the Washington State Supreme Court determined to be invalid or unconstitutional, including the death penalty.
In a release, Attorney General Bob Ferguson supported the move, saying “the Legislature took the important and appropriate step of repealing the death penalty from our state statutes once and for all.”
In 2018, the state Supreme Court ruled the death penalty was applied in an arbitrary and racially biased manner, with a study finding Black defendants were four times as likely to receive the death penalty as their white counterparts.
The death penalty was among 30 Washington statutes deemed unconstitutional in a recent report, according to a release from Ferguson’s office. Other statutes repealed as part of the bill include laws that allowed forced sterilization and loyalty oaths, like requirements that public employees sign anti-communist pledges.
Inslee issued a death penalty moratorium in 2014, with the last time Washington executed an inmate being in 2010.