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                                                   SENATE BILL NO. 5039

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State of Washington                               51st Legislature                              1989 Regular Session

By Senators Hayner, Niemi, Thorsness and Nelson; by request of Department of Corrections

Read first time 1/13/89 and referred to Committee on Law & Justice.

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.  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 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)) offender, by intravenous injection of a substance or substances in a lethal quantity sufficient to cause death and until the ((defendant)) offender is dead.

For offenders whose offenses are committed 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 by intravenous injection of a substance or substances in a lethal quantity sufficient to cause death and until the offender 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.