Washington State Supreme Court Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis Credit: Office of Governor Jay Inslee
Washington State Supreme Court Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis Apr 27, 2021
Bill Radke talks with Washington Supreme Court Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis about restorative justice, systemic racism in the criminal justice system and her involvement with Washington Native American tribes. We hear from two candidates vying to be Seattleâs next mayor as part of our series introducing voters to the candidates, their top priorities and why theyâre running. And move over McMansions, here comes McModerns!
Individual segments are available in our podcast stream or at www.kuow.org/record.
Reviewing all the notable criminal justice work of the Washington Supreme Court in recent times
Regular readers have likely noticed pretty regular posts about pretty notable criminal justice rulings coming from the Supreme Court of Washington. In this
Slate piece, Mark Joseph Stern tells the story of this court s recent personnel changes and reviews some of these rulings. The piece, which is fully headlined Washington State Shows How a Truly Progressive Court Changes Everything: Joe Biden should look to the state’s diverse and courageous Supreme Court when making nominations to the federal bench, starts this way (with links from the original):
WA state Supreme Court prohibits mandatory life without parole for young adults
News Tribune, Tacoma, Wash. 3/12/2021 Alexis Krell, The News Tribune (Tacoma, Wash.)
Mar. 11 The Washington State Supreme Court found mandatory sentences of life without parole unconstitutional for young adults and ordered two Pierce County men to be resentenced in a split ruling Thursday. Just as courts must exercise discretion before sentencing a 17-year-old to die in prison, so must they exercise the same discretion when sentencing an 18-, 19-, or 20-year-old, Justice Sheryl Gordon McCloud wrote in the lead opinion, signed by Justices Mary I. Yu, Raquel Montoya-Lewis and G. Helen Whitener. . We remand each case for a new sentencing hearing at which the trial court must consider whether each defendant was subject to the mitigating qualities of youth.
Here s your
daily roundup of all the latest local and national news. Before we get to today s big discussion on potatoes and gender, let s check in with some news that matters.
GOOD NEWS for our fellow LGBTs:The House of Representatives has successfully passed the Equality Act, which prohibits discrimination against sexual orientation or gender identity in such areas as housing, jobs, education, public accommodations, and more! Now it goes to the Senate, where it will need at least 60 votes to avoid a filibuster Democrats could also just nuke the filibuster off the face of the earth.
9 Republican votes for the Equality Act in 2019 and 3 Republican votes for the Equality Act in 2020 is a pretty good summary of how things are going in the Republican Party.