Friday’s news article reporting that the Washington State Supreme Court has overturned the death penalty for a convicted murderer/rapist comes as no surprise but still feels like a lighting bolt to my heart. This piece of human waste will escape lethal injection thanks to our elected justices who were “groveling for an excuse” to scrap the death sentence.
The court’s decision was based on details as petty as a prosecutor’s comment that prison life afforded access to TV and listening to music. To quote the mother of the victim “His (the defendant) rights were not trampled in any way. The guilt is still the guilt.” This poor family is now re-victimized by the false promise that the death penalty, which was voted back into place by the citizens of this state in 1975, will ever be carried out.
Considering the current anti-death penalty agenda of the state Supreme Court and the 9th District U.S. Court of Appeals, as well as the proportionality issues raised from the Gary Ridgeway plea deal, we will never see an execution carried out in this state again. Only seven murderers are currently on death row in this state. One of them, a serial murderer, is asking our state Supreme Court to overturn his death sentence as well. After all, he only killed 18 women when Ridgeway killed 48-plus. Also he is now a “devout Christian” and believes allowing the state to execute him would be akin to suicide … which of course is a sin(murder is not?).
It’s time for some honesty in this state. We the citizens need to take action to ensure the death penalty is shored up and supported through due process or we need to abolish it. Let’s stop re-victimizing families and loved ones who have suffered the ultimate loss with the fairy tale that this state is willing to administer the ultimate justice.
Bill Burkheimer
Marysville
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