S-1247               _______________________________________________

                                         SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL NO. 5039

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                               51st Legislature                              1989 Regular Session

By Senate Committee on Law & Justice (originally sponsored by Senators Hayner, Niemi, Thorsness and Nelson; by request of Department of Corrections)

Read first time 1/25/89.

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

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

        Sec. 1.  Section 18, chapter 138, Laws of 1981 as amended by section 1, chapter 194, Laws of 1986 and RCW 10.95.180 are each amended to read as follows:

          (1) For offenders whose offenses are committed before, on, or after the effective date of this act, 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)) offender is dead.

          ((In any case,)) Death shall be pronounced by a licensed physician.

          (2) If the death penalty method of lethal intravenous injection as provided for in this chapter, is held to be invalid by a final judgment of a court which is binding on all courts in the state, the punishment of death shall be inflicted by hanging by the neck.

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

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.     This act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public institutions, and shall take effect immediately.