WALLA WALLA, Wash.-The “death chamber” at the Washington “State Penitentiary where inmates sentenced to death were executed, the last remaining one in the Washington Department of Corrections system, was taken offline on Sept. 18.
According to KING 5 reporting on the closure of the small room within the penitentiary, the closing is largely ceremonial, as Governor Jay Inslee instituted a moratorium on the death penalty in Washington in 2014.
In use since 1904, death row inmates had the choice of hanging or lethal injection in the small room within the penitentiary. Throughout its history 78 inmates were executed in the so-called “death chamber” with the last happening in 2010, according to KING’s reporting on the closure.
The official closing of the “death chamber” comes after Gov. Inslee’s moratorium in 2014 and the Washington Supreme Court ruling in 2018 that the way the death penalty was administered was racist and the official abolishment of capital punishment in 2023.
Although the “death chamber” is going offline the room will be left intact and a plaque will be placed for historical reasons, according to the DOC.
