House Panel To Pass Bill Changing Execution Method

A House panel indicated Tuesday it will pass a bill making the state’s preferred method of execution the needle instead of the noose.

The Senate is expected to pass similar legislation.

The House Law and Justice Committee heard overwhelmingly favorable testimony on HB2280, which would mandate death row inmates be executed by lethal injection unless they chose hanging as an alternative.

Currently, inmates are hanged unless they choose lethal injection. Several inmates have managed to delay execution by refusing lethal injection and arguing that hanging is too cruel. The most recent is Mitchell Rupe, who has argued he would be decapitated because he weighs too much.

Attorney General Christine Gregoire told the panel that Rupe’s appeal is just one example of actions that have cost the state about $320,000 in legal costs to defend hanging as the primary method.

Last year, a similar bill died in the House after conservative lawmakers argued that lethal injection was too good for death row inmates.

But the Rupe case has changed that view, several said.

Rupe, who killed two bank tellers in a 1981 Olympia robbery, gained added notoriety in 1994 when a federal judge ruled he could not be hanged because his 400 pounds might cause the noose to tear his head off.

The court also ruled the penalty phase of Rupe’s trial was unfair. Both rulings are under appeal by the state.

The House committee indicated it would soon send the measure on to the full House for an expected yes vote. The Senate and Gov. Mike Lowry also favor the legislation.