King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg’s retreat from the death penalty in a high-profile case should encourage the Legislature to repeal it entirely.
IN theory, the death penalty is the ultimate punishment for the most serious murders in Washington. But in practice, it is pursued too randomly and with little success to justify its exorbitant costs and moral quandary.
This week, King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg wisely took the death penalty off the table in the last of three recent capital murder cases. No more death-penalty cases are pending in the state’s largest county. There should not be any more in the future.
Two recent juries delivered life sentences in worst-of-the-worst capital murder cases. A jury took just one hour to unanimously decide Christopher Monfort — convicted of assassinating Seattle police officer Timothy Brenton and attempting to kill more — deserved a life-without-parole sentence.
Satterberg this week halted pursuit of the death penalty against Michele Anderson, accused of orchestrating the murder of six members of her family. Her co-defendant, Joseph McEnroe, received a life, not death, sentence. Satterberg explained it would be inequitable for him to continue to pursue the death penalty.
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Inequity has been a hallmark of the death penalty. Pierce and Kitsap counties have been much more likely to pursue the death penalty than King or Snohomish counties, which are more able to absorb an estimated $1 million in legal and investigative costs associated with capital cases. Costs for the three recent King County death-penalty cases are an astonishing $15 million.
A capital-murder case can push poorer counties to the brink of bankruptcy, as Clallam County found in recent years. A state fund to ease the burden of aggravated murder cases paid just $3.4 million of the more than $23 million requested statewide, according to The Associated Press. Such stark fiscal reality inevitably influences prosecutors.
A death penalty delivered based on ZIP code — not justice — is not justice at all.
Satterberg knows that pursuing a death sentence rarely results in death. Since the death penalty was reinstated in Washington in 1981, prosecutors have sought a death sentence in 90 of 268 eligible cases. Juries delivered a death sentence in 32.
Of those, only five were executed, and three were effectively volunteers who waived appeals. Just twice in 34 years has the state executed defendants who exhausted appeals. The nine men currently on death row will remain there at least until 2016 because Gov. Jay Inslee has imposed a moratorium.
The muddled history of the death penalty demands a change in course. The Legislature briefly debated repeal this year. Lawmakers next year should rise to the task, air arguments and vote.
Until then, Satterberg should read the winds of social change and not seek the death penalty again.