Washington State Abolishes the Death Penalty, Finding the Punishment ‘Racially Biased’

By Anne Branigin, theRoot.com

Washington state’s Supreme Court abolished the death penalty on Thursday on the grounds that it was applied randomly and “in a racially biased manner,” thus violating the state’s constitution. With the decision, Washington is now the 20th U.S. state to ban capital punishment.

The case striking down capital punishment was brought forward by a black death row inmate, Allen Gregory. As ABC News reports, Gregory was sentenced to death for raping and murdering a 43-year-old woman in her home in 1996.

From ABC News:

There is no doubt of Allen’s guilt, or of the horrific brutality of his crime. What the Washington court focused on is what many states have come to see—the death penalty is administered so arbitrarily, and is laced with so much conscious and unconscious racial bias, that it cannot be seen as a just or even lawful act by the state.

Supporting this was an exhaustive University of Washington study that focused on how the death penalty is applied in the state. It was a key piece of evidence for the prosecution.

According to ABC News, the study found black defendants were four and half times more likely to receive the death penalty than white defendants who had been convicted of similar crimes. The study, which also looked at how prosecutors seek the death penalty, found there was no difference with regard to who they sought the death penalty for…

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