SENATE BILL REPORT

SSB 6309

This analysis was prepared by non-partisan legislative staff for the use of legislative members in their deliberations. This analysis is not a part of the legislation nor does it constitute a statement of legislative intent.

Title: An act relating to including persons acquitted by reason of insanity within the slayer statute.

Brief Description: Including persons acquitted by reason of insanity within the slayer statute.

Sponsors: Senate Committee on Judiciary (originally sponsored by Senators Carrell, King and Roach).

Majority Report: That Substitute Senate Bill No. 6309 be substituted therefor, and the substitute bill do pass.

Signed by Senators Kline, Chair; Regala, Vice Chair; Carrell, Gordon, Hargrove and Roach.

Background: Under certain circumstances, an individual who takes the life of another is not entitled to inherit property or receive any benefit from the person the individual killed. This rule, in statute as part of the state's estate distribution laws, is commonly referred to as the slayer statute. A slayer is a person who participates, either as a principal or an accessory before the fact, in the willful and unlawful killing of any other person.

Summary of Substitute Bill: The definition of slayer is amended to provide that even if a person has been found not guilty by reason of insanity in the killing of another person, the person may still be determined to be a slayer if the killing was both willful and unlawful.

Staff Summary of Public Testimony on Proposed Substitute As Heard in Committee: CON: This bill as drafted goes beyond the Supreme Court's holding in Kissinger v. Hoge. The Kissinger case decided whether a person who was found not guilty by reason of insanity could use that finding as a defense in a slayer statute proceeding. The answer was no, the court will look at the individual facts of the case to determine whether the killing was willful. The language in the bill lumps all persons who are found not guilty by reason of insanity into the same category even though there will be people who are so severely mentally ill they would not meet the definition of willful.