Washington's governor will attend an event at the state penitentiary in Walla Walla on Wednesday to mark the official closing of the facility's death row chamber.
The same governor, Jay Inslee, issued a moratorium on executions early in his term, in 2014. Since the death penalty was reinstated in the U.S. in the 1970s — after an eight-year hiatus due to legal wrangling over the issue — Washington has executed five people, but none since 2010.
Meanwhile, South Carolina is preparing to carry out an execution on Friday in the murder case of Freddie Owens, who was convicted of murder. The case involves questions of fairness of trial — a co-defendant testified against Owens and received a 28-year sentence. —and the unusual scenario of a lawyer chooses the method of execution for his clientincluding lethal injection, electric shock, and firing squad.
These divergent paths reflect the state of the death penalty in the US, where only a small number of states carry out executions, but a change in the presidency after the November 5 election could lead to a resumption of federal executions.
Here are some of the current death penalty issues.
Where, how much
There were 13 executions in seven states in 2024. The deaths were carried out by lethal injection, except for the execution in Alabama where nitrogen hypoxia was used for the first time for this purpose.
It is possible this year's total will be similar to last year's 23 executions, with the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC) listing Owens as one of 11 people with confirmed execution dates before December 31.
There were 98 executions in 1999. But now, 21 states no longer have the death penalty, and six others have moratoriums on the practice. Even some states that still have laws, such as Idaho and Indiana, have not carried out an execution in more than a decade, with the last execution in Kansas taking place in 1965.
Fairness and cost are most often cited as reasons for moving away from execution.
The death penalty has been imposed on African-American defendants at a disproportionate level to their share of the population, according to the DPIC. And while about half of all murder victims in the U.S. are Caucasian, about 75 percent of executions carried out since 1977 involved those convicted of killing white victims.
Many studies have found cases of the death penalty burdening taxpayers much more than when a defendant is sentenced to life in prison without parole, because of the tedious appeals process and associated costs for lawyers and scientific experts.
Additionally, states and governments open to carrying out the death penalty have run into obstacles in the past decade over the three-drug combination typically used for lethal injections until then. Some pharmaceutical manufacturers have balked at the use of their drugs for executions.
More than 2,200 people are currently on the country's death row.
Death penalty and elections
There was a 17-year gap between federal inmate executions, ending in July 2020. That was when the US Justice Department under Donald Trump carried out the first of 13 executions in a seven-month span.
It is a dramatic juxtaposition at a time when some countries are rolling back the practice. as COVID-19 spreads widely in US prisonsFederal executions accounted for nearly half of the 28 executions carried out across the US in 2020-21.
Trump, if he is reinstated, is expected to order the attorney general to resume federal executions. There are 40 inmates on federal death row, all of them men. Trump has mused more than once about making some drug dealers and human beings eligible for the death penalty, complicated legal and political questions.
In her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, Kamala Harris said there should be a moratorium on federal executions.
Republicans have tried to portray Harris as a candidate without strong views, and she has changed her stance on the death penalty, according to her positions. As San Francisco district attorney in 2004, she vowed to “never impose the death penalty.” But years later, as California attorney general, she said she would “enforce the death penalty as mandated by law,” arguing that she had a duty to uphold the law as the state’s attorney general.
As for voters, 53 percent in the latest Gallup survey on the issue support the death penalty, with a record low of 32 percent of Democrats expressing that view. Between 1985 and 1999, support for the death penalty in Gallup surveys was above 70 percent. For the first time, Gallup reportsLess than half of survey respondents believe that the death penalty is not applied fairly.
Legal issues: Will child rape someday qualify?
U.S. execution laws dictate that a crime must involve the death of the victim, or treason, to qualify for the death penalty. The Supreme Court ruled nearly 40 years ago that execution was too harsh a punishment for sexual assault.
Florida and Tennessee are testing the waters; their legislatures recently changed their laws to make some child rape cases eligible for the death penalty. The conservative Project 2025 document, promoted by many Trump supporters and written by the Heritage Foundation think tank, argues that the next federal administration should “reserve the death penalty for applicable crimes — particularly heinous crimes involving violence and sexual abuse of children — until Congress says otherwise through legislation.”
LISTEN to Rolling Stone's Nikki McCann Ramirez on Project 2025:
Day 6at 13.20Project 2025. A controversial blueprint created for Trump to rebuild America.
This week, former US President Donald Trump and his campaign continued to distance themselves from Project 2025. But there are many people who served in the Trump administration from 2016 to 2020 who are associated with the project. Project 2025 has released a 900-page document called Mandate for Leadership 2025: The Conservative Promise. It covers everything from abortion to immigration to the future of federal agencies and civil rights legislation. Biden and Democrats have called it Trump’s “extremist” agenda for America. Trump has denied any involvement. Nikki McCann Ramirez is a political reporter at Rolling Stone magazine and is with Day 6.
The 2008 Supreme Court ruling found the use of the death penalty in child sexual abuse cases unconstitutional. But four justices dissented, three of whom are still on the bench — Chief Justice John Roberts, along with Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas.
The Supreme Court now consists of a 6-3 conservative majority, unlike in 2008, and southern states can expect a reversal of long-standing precedent, as seen in 2022, when the landmark Roe v. Wade opinion on abortion in 1973 was essentially overturned.
Another case that could go to the Supreme Court is a recently passed Florida law that says a defendant can be sentenced to death if at least eight jurors vote in favor of him during the death penalty phase after a verdict is rendered. Gov. Ron DeSantis is furious that Parkland school shooter sentenced to life in prison when three judges felt there was mitigating factors in the background of the shooter that make the death penalty unjust.
All other states with death penalty statutes require unanimous jury approval, except Alabama, where 10 or more jurors must agree.