Last week, our latest Democrat Governor, Jay Inslee, suspended the execution of convicts on Washington’s Death Row.
What makes this move particularly odd is the, in past campaigns for the US House of Representatives, Inslee spoke in favor of the death penalty. My guess is that with Democrats currently sucking wind nationally, and particularly so in the state, he needed something to shore up his base.
You can take a looksee here to see the fine, upstanding individuals currently waiting for the hangman’s noose or the prick of the needle in our Walla Walla penitentiary. Since all of them killed women, you’d figure the NOW crowd would want Inslee’s head. But no. Not so oddly, if you follow crime statistics, most of them were bludgeoned to death.
On the day after this order came down, I was listening to a radio show before class and heard one of the anti-capital punishment folks on the radio using the argument that we didn’t put serial killers like Gary Ridgway (Green River Killer) on Death Row, and the host neglected to point out that, while they SHOULD be there, their confessions in exchange for life without parole not only saved Washington taxpayers millions of dollars, but also helped some of the families of the victims recover their remains.
I just found it odd that a professional would leave a door to refuting why capital punishment was useful open so wide.
I have a problem with how the death penalty is used, in that I think the evidentiary bar should be set very high before a DA could seek the death penalty (an abundance of physical evidence, or a clearly un-coerced confession on tape) & the state should be very willing to allow the exploration of exculpatory evidence in such cases, in case they got it wrong.
That said, if Inslee thinks people are being unfairly put on Death Row, why just a reprieve instead of commutations? Seems wishy-washy to me.
But then, he always has…
“…find it odd that a professional…”
Professional what/i> is the question? Divider? Power-seeker? He’s not about service, or solutions, but being in control in the wheel-house, even if that means running the ship aground by sowing discord, distraction, hatred, distrust, and envy. In other words, he’s a politician looking to the next news cycle, not the big picture.