GOP weighs in on Gov. Inslee’s death penalty decision

We’ve heard Governor Jay Inslee, defense attorneys and prosecutors, and now the Washington State Republican Party is weighing in on the decision to put a moratorium on the death penalty in Washington.

There is legislation being drafted in Olympia that would prevent the governor from acting on his decision to grant blanket reprieves for the nine men on death row.

State Senator Steven O’Ban said the governor doesn’t have the executive power to grant blanket reprieves in death penalty cases. Said O’Ban, “I believe it’s a misuse of his power.”

While the governor certainly has the legal authority to commute death sentences or grant reprieves when the cases reach his desk, O’Ban said that can only happen after the cases have been reviewed by the Clemency Board and recommendations have been made.

O’Ban told KIRO Radio’s Jason Rantz Show he introduced a bill in Olympia that would reaffirm that. “My bill would effectively reaffirm that process of the governor and say, ‘If it wasn’t clear before it should be clear now: governor, you can’t commute sentences unless you follow the process that other governors have followed for the last many decades.'”

O’Ban represents Pierce County where three of the nine men on Death Row committed their crimes. He said the governor should have involved the legislature before making this surprise announcement, and he believes Gov. Inslee should have involved victims’ families.

“I’ve heard from several victims’ families who were not contacted, and they feel like their concerns and their sense of justice and the long wait for justice to be done has been completely ignored in this process,” he said.

And Senator O’Ban also believes the governor’s decision will put corrections workers at greater risk.

“Completely taking away the death penalty for those that are in there for life, there’s no ultimate penalty to be applied to them now if they should kill a corrections worker.”

Though it is passed the deadline in the legislature for new bills to be introduced, O’Ban’s bill can still get a committee hearing.