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                                  HOUSE BILL 1055

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State of Washington              52nd Legislature             1991 Regular Session

By Representatives Appelwick, Ludwig, Fraser, Schmidt, Grant, Holland, Bray, R. Meyers, Miller and Orr; by request of Department of Corrections.

Read first time January 17, 1991.  Referred to Committee on Judiciary.Requiring that the death penalty be carried out by lethal injection.

     AN ACT Relating to method of execution; and amending RCW 10.95.180.

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

     Sec. 1.  RCW 10.95.180 and 1986 c 194 s 1 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 or, at the election of the defendant,)) by intravenous injection of a substance or substances in a lethal quantity sufficient to cause death and until the defendant is dead.  ((In any case,)) Death shall be pronounced by a licensed physician.

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

(3) If any provision of subsection (1) of this section or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the punishment of death shall be supervised by the superintendent of the penitentiary and shall be inflicted either by hanging by the neck or, at the election of the defendant, by intravenous injection of a substance or substances in a lethal quantity sufficient to cause death and until the defendant is dead.  In any case, death shall be pronounced by a licensed physician.