The WA State House of Representatives committee hearing will occur on MON FEB 24, 2020, and more action will occur on THURS FEB 27.
The Washington State Senate has already passed SB 5339 to abolish the death penalty, and the House Public Safety Committee will hold its hearing on SB 5339 on Monday February 24, 2020, at 1:30 pm in Hearing Room D of the O-Brien Building (slightly SW of the Capitol Bldg).
I will testify to the House committee. Here is a fleshed-out version of what I will say to the committee during the brief time allotted to each person:
TESTIMONY 2020.02.24 — OK to share this with more people
This Thursday February 27 the committee will hold its executive session to decide whether to pass SB 5339 along to the House Rules Committee for possible movement onto the House Floor for final passage. If the House passes it, the Governor will certainly sign it. Then the death penalty statute will be removed from Washington State law.
I have been posting information to the “Death Penalty” part of my blog, www.parallaxperspectives.org. On February 8, 2020, I posted the news that the WA State Senate had passed this bill on January 31: http://parallaxperspectives.org/good-news-wa-state-senate-passed-sb-5339-to-repeal-was-death-penalty-law
In October 2018 the Washington State Supreme Court UNANIMOUSLY ruled that our state’s death penalty is unconstitutional because of its very long history of racial bias. This court decision prevented any current or future death penalty cases, but the statute remained in Washington State’s law (the Revised Code of Washington), so this legislation is necessary in order to repeal that law. I posted to my blog this information about the State Supreme Court decision:
http://parallaxperspectives.org/more-info-wa-state-death-penalty-is-ruled-unconstitutional