S-4225               _______________________________________________

                                         SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL NO. 4683

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              49th Legislature                              1986 Regular Session

By Senate Committee on Human Services & Corrections (originally sponsored by Senators Rasmussen, Owen, Deccio and Metcalf; by request of Department of Corrections)

Read first time 1/24/86.

AN ACT Relating to the death penalty; and amending RCW 10.95.180.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

        Sec. 1.  Section 18, chapter 138, Laws of 1981 and RCW 10.95.180 are each amended to read as follows:

          (1) The punishment of death shall be supervised by the superintendent of the penitentiary and shall be inflicted either by hanging by the neck ((until death is pronounced by a licensed physician)) or, at the election of the defendant, by ((continuous, intravenous administration of a lethal dose of sodium thiopental until death is pronounced by a licensed physician)) intravenous injection of a substance or substances in a lethal quantity sufficient to cause death and until the defendant is dead.  Death shall be pronounced by the medical examiner of the county in which the execution takes place.

          (2) All executions, for both men and women, shall be carried out within the walls of the state penitentiary.