(Comstock)
According to ABC News, the state of Washington’s Supreme Court has ruled that the death penalty violates the state’s constitution.
This decision was made after a study reportedly found, “black defendants were four-and-a-half times more likely to be sentenced to death than similarly-situated white defendants.” The decision reads,“the death penalty is invalid because it is imposed in an arbitrary and racially biased manner.”
The decision continues, “the use of the death penalty is unequally applied -— sometimes by where the crime took place, or the county of residence, or the available budgetary resources at any given point in time, or the race of the defendant.”
Washington is the 20th state to abolish capital punishment, and the eighth in the last 11 years.
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Washington State Bans Death Penalty, Calls It ‘Racially Biased’ was originally published on blackamericaweb.com
