A look inside Washington state's execution chamber, ahead of its official closure

Record ID: 1842199

  • Title: A look inside Washington state's execution chamber, ahead of its official closure
  • Date: 16th September 2024
  • Summary: WALLA WALLA, WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES (SEPTEMBER 6, 2024)(REUTERS) VARIOUS OF LETHAL INJECTION GURNEY INSIDE EXECUTION CHAMBER AT WASHINGTON STATE PENITENTIARY (SOUNDBITE)(English) FORMER WASHINGTON STATE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS SECRETARY, DICK MORGAN, SAYING: "I think the death penalty in general is too much to ask a servant of the state to do. I care about these people that have to carry out their daily jobs and asking anybody to kill someone is a bridge too far." PAINTINGS OF ASOTIN COUNTY SHERIFF JOHN WORMELL AND HERBERT NICCOLLS JR. ON WALL IN SUPERINTENDENT'S CONFERENCE ROOM, NICCOLLS WAS THE YOUNGEST PERSON TO BE HOUSED AT WASHINGTON STATE PENITENTIARY AT AGE 12 IN 1931 AND SHERIFF JOHN WORMELL WAS THE MAN HE SHOT AND KILLED DURING RESPONSE TO A ROBBERY NICCOLLS PERPETRATED DICK MORGAN SITTING IN SUPERINTENDENT'S CONFERENCE ROOM (SOUNDBITE)(English) FORMER WASHINGTON STATE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS SECRETARY, DICK MORGAN, SAYING: "It's the only death chamber in the state. And while I was on the Washington Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty board, and worked to get to this moment, so I'm pretty happy about that. And penitentiary is my old stomping grounds. I still know people here, and so I'm very comfortable being in prison." DRONE OF WASHINGTON STATE PENITENTIARY (MUTE) GUARD TOWER AND SECURITY FENCE INSIDE PRISON INCARCERATED INDIVIDUALS INSIDE RECREATION YARD AT PRISON STAIRWELL AND DOOR LEADING TO EXECUTION CHAMBER HOLDING CELL VARIOUS OF INTERIOR WITHIN EXECUTION CHAMBER BUILDING DICK MORGAN WALKING INTO EXECUTION CHAMBER (SOUNDBITE)(English) FORMER WASHINGTON STATE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS SECRETARY, DICK MORGAN, SAYING: "Knowing what I know, if I had the intestinal fortitude and my knees held up, I would prefer hanging if I were the condemned over lethal injection. And that's because from the time you start the process to the time that you're dead is very brief with hanging. And it seems interminably long for a lethal injection. And that's because of all of the machinations you have to do with I-V Lines, administering the poisons and so forth." LOCK ON EXECUTION CHAMBER HOLDING CELL EXECUTION CHAMBER HOLDING CELL (SOUNDBITE)(English) FORMER WASHINGTON STATE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS SECRETARY, DICK MORGAN, SAYING: "Although it wasn't my experience, there was never a question about the guilt or how the horrible crimes were. But the legal justice system is flawed. It's a human invention, and innocent people do wind up in prison. Innocent people can be convicted and sentenced to death. And I can't think of a nightmare worse than being involved in executing somebody that it turns out later never should have been." EXECUTION CHAMBER HOLDING CELL/GALLLOWS ROOM FOR HANGING EXECUTION FLOOR BOARDS COVERING HOLES FOR HANGING EXECUTION MICROPHONE IN GALLOWS EXECUTION CHAMBER FOR LAST WORDS VIEW FROM ABOVE WITNESS ROOM FROM GALLOWS EXECUTION CHAMBER//DICK MORGAN TALKING ABOUT THE CHAMBER LETHAL INJECTION EXECUTION CHAMBER SEEN FROM WITNESS ROOM LETHAL INJECTION GURNEY IN EXECUTION CHAMBER VIEW OF LETHAL INJECTION EXECUTION CHAMBER WITH DICK MORGAN IN WITNESS ROOM (SOUNDBITE)(English) FORMER WASHINGTON STATE DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS SECRETARY, DICK MORGAN, SAYING: "The penitentiary was so infamous, they managed to leverage the highway department: No signs for the penitentiary. It's invisible and we don't talk about it. And I think that that part of our heritage continues to stay with the people of lifelong residents of Walla Walla." DICK MORGAN WALKING INSIDE WASHINGTON STATE PENITENTIARY GROUNDS DRONE OF WASHINGTON STATE PENITENTIARY (MUTE)
  • Embargoed: 30th September 2024 10:58
  • Keywords: DEATH PENALTY EXECUTION CHAMBER JAY INSLEE WASHINGTON STATE PENITENTIARY
  • Location: WALLA WALLA, WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES
  • City: WALLA WALLA, WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES
  • Country: US
  • Topics: Crime/Law/Justice,North America
  • Reuters ID: LVA001255408092024RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text:Washington state’s only execution chamber will be closed at Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla on Wednesday (September 18), with departing three-term governor Jay Inslee attending an official closure ceremony.
    Cal Coburn Brown was the last inmate to be executed by lethal injection at the prison, for the 1991 kidnapping, rape and murder of 21-year-old Holly Washa. Brown was on death row for more than 16 years before being executed on September 10, 2010.
    Former Department of Correction Secretary Richard “Dick” Morgan, who once oversaw executions and later worked to have the death penalty abolished in the state, told Reuters he is happy to see the chamber shut down.
    "I think the death penalty in general is too much to ask a servant of the state to do.” said Morgan, who participated in three executions during his 35 year career in the state’s prison system. “I care about these people that have to carry out their daily jobs and asking anybody to kill someone is a bridge too far."
    Morgan said if given the choice, he would prefer to die by hanging.
    “From the time you start the process to the time that you're dead is very brief with hanging, and it seems interminably long for a lethal injection”, he said, citing the medical process involved.
    Reuters was recently shown inside the rooms of the death chamber, which still contain some of the tools that were used to end the lives of 78 people, all men, between 1904 and Brown’s execution in 2010. The clock on the wall in the execution chamber was stopped at the time the last death sentence was carried out.
    Morgan officially retired from his position as Director of Prisons at Washington Department of Corrections in 2010, but has returned for various roles and appointments in the years since, while regularly speaking out against the death penalty.
    “The legal justice system is flawed. It's a human invention, and innocent people do wind up in prison. Innocent people can be convicted and sentenced to death.” Morgan said. “I can't think of a nightmare worse than being involved in executing somebody that it turns out later never should have been."
    In 2014, during his first term in office, Inslee announced that a reprieve would be issued for any death penalty case that reached his desk. Four years later, the Washington Supreme Court declared the state’s death penalty statue unconstitutional, but the law still remained on the books.
    That ended with Inslee’s signing of Senate Bill 5087 on April 20, 2023, removing it from state law and officially abolishing the death penalty in the state.
    (Production: Matt M. McKnight)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2024. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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