S-0131.3/91 _______________________________________________
SENATE BILL 5173
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State of Washington 52nd Legislature 1991 Regular Session
By Senators Saling, Rasmussen, Metcalf, Stratton, Amondson, Anderson, Bauer, Barr, McCaslin, L. Smith, Cantu, Thorsness, Patterson, Vognild, Craswell, McDonald and Matson.
Read first time January 22, 1991. Referred to Committee on Law & Justice.
AN ACT Relating to the death penalty for certain rapists; adding a new section to chapter 10.95 RCW; creating a new section; and prescribing penalties.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. The legislature recognizes that the crimes of rape in the first degree and rape of a child in the first degree are among the most offensive and outrageous crimes in our society. The emotional damage to the victims of these crimes, and to the families and friends of the victims, is not only of the most severe nature, but is also everlasting.
The legislature finds that persons who commit these offenses have a high probability of reoffending and that public safety will best be served by imposing the death penalty for second offenders.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 10.95 RCW to read as follows:
Every person who commits a rape and is eighteen years of age or older, upon a second conviction, after the person attains age eighteen, of rape in the first degree or rape of a child in the first degree, shall be sentenced to the death penalty.