Washington

EJUSA has been an invaluable resource for Washington's campaign to repeal the death penalty. Your experience and successes in other states has provided us with needed perspective and has saved us from reinventing countless wheels.

As a Superior Court judge, I tried many murder cases, including one death-penalty prosecution, which is still in limbo after almost two decades of appeals. In my 20 years on the bench, I came to recognize the death penalty as inherently unfair, arbitrary, costly and ineffective.

I think [the death penalty is] very expensive, and the delays are inordinate, delaying closure for the victims' families.

It is now nearly seven years since my brother Bob's murder. His killer is still walking the streets. My message and voice are focused on dispelling the delusion that the death penalty keeps us safe. We are wasting millions each year sentencing a few aging convicts to death while thousands more murders each year remain unsolved and tens of thousands of family members like me are left with little hope for any justice.