Tag Archives: legislature

Local, National

New law requires Washington law enforcement to record interrogations

[OLYMPIA] – (MTN) Lawyer and criminal justice expert Laura Nirider and longtime criminal legal advocate Jason Flom join the chorus of those celebrating the passage of a new law today which will prevent wrongful convictions and protect the integrity of criminal cases. The new law, signed by Washington Governor Jay Inslee, requires law enforcement officers to electronically record custodial interrogations if the interrogation involves a juvenile or is related to a felony.

The new law, sponsored by Representative Strom Peterson (D — Edmonds), has been supported by Nirider, Flom, and a number of advocacy groups, including the Uniform Law commission and the Washington Innocence Project. Peterson was inspired to write the legislation after hearing an episode of Lava for Good Podcasts’ that tells the story of Henry McCollum and Leon Brown, two intellectually disabled half-brothers who were recently awarded $75 million by a North Carolina jury after spending decades behind bars for a crime they didn’t commit. 

With its signing, Washington joins 27 other states, Washington D.C., and federal agencies (including the FBI) in requiring the taping of suspect interviews. According to the National Registry of Exonerations, 12 people in Washington state alone have been wrongfully convicted after confessing to crimes they didn’t commit. 

“Twenty-nine percent of the people who have been proven innocent through DNA exonerations have confessed to crimes they didn’t commit,” said Nirider, a Clinical Professor of Law and co-director of the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law, as well as a host of the Wrongful Conviction: False Confessions podcast. “This legislation is a key step towards ending the epidemic of wrongful convictions that plagues our justice system.” 

Flom welcomed the law as a desperately needed change. “False confessions are a significant problem in our criminal legal system — and a common cause of wrongful convictions,” he said. “From juveniles to those with mental health issues, there are far too many who are highly susceptible to the coercive interrogation techniques often used to extract confessions. This legislation will provide an irrefutable record of what went on behind those closed doors. I extend a sincere thanks to Governor Inslee, Representative Peterson, and the other lawmakers who supported this bill.”

The legislation, which will go into effect on January 1, 2022.

BIPOC, Local

House Bill HB 1016 making Juneteenth a state holiday heads to Governor Inslee’s desk

[OLYMPIA] – (MTN) The Washington state legislature overwhelmingly passed HB 1016, which would make June 19, Juneteenth, a legal state holiday. The bill had 39 sponsors and passed in the Democratic-led Senate 47-1. The measure passed in the House with similar bipartisan support in February, 89-9.

According to Juneteenth.com, Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States. On June 19, 1865, Union soldiers led by Major General Gordon Granger landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. This was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation – which had become official January 1, 1863.

The Emancipation Proclamation had little impact on the Texans due to the minimal number of Union troops to enforce the new Executive Order. However, with the surrender of General Lee in April of 1865, and the arrival of General Granger’s regiment, the forces were finally strong enough to influence and overcome the resistance.

General Granger read several general order’s upon his arrival, the most significant being general order three. “The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired laborer.”

Texas was the first state to recognize Juneteenth as an official state holiday in 1980. The traditional celebrations included barbecue meat, dressing in fine clothes, and exchanging books. During slavery, food was not plentiful and meat was a luxury. In some slave states, enslaved peoples were not permitted to wear nice clothes. Learning to read and write was illegal, and slaves who learned to read or write outside of their duties could be blinded, have fingers or hand cut off, or even executed.

The movement to make Juneteenth a state holiday in Washington gained momentum during social justice protests in the summer of 2020 over the death of George Floyd.