Arcan Cetin won’t get death penalty under Gov. Jay Inslee

Arcan Cetin is a bad guy. The alleged Cascade Mall shooter claimed the lives of five innocent people. And as his former classmate Austin Hendrix told me, Cetin was always a bad guy.

“He was a little odd. It was hard for people to get along with him… because of how he would act out,” Hendrix explained. “He groped women and basically harassed women. I have close friends who have been groped by him and harassed by him. He would walk up to them and try to touch them…”

Related: Cascade Mall shooting suspect charged with murder

Now, Cetin will go through the court system, he will almost assuredly be found guilty (at least, based on the evidence currently presented), but he won’t get the punishment he deserves; he won’t get the death penalty because Governor Jay Inslee refuses to enforce the ultimate punishment.

In February of 2014, Inslee suspended use of the death penalty, in order to “join a growing national conversation about capital punishment.”

Related: Vigil planned for shooting victims

“There have been too many doubts raised about capital punishment, there are too many flaws in this system today,” Inslee said at a news conference at the time. “There is too much at stake to accept an imperfect system.”

Inslee has done nothing to change the system. How could he? He’s not a leader. He suspends the use of a system of punishment rather than work to get the practiced banned. He’s an ideologue first, leader last, and now an alleged murderer may live out his long life in a prison cell at our expense.

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