State v. McEnroe, 181 Wn. 2d 375

Summary

The Washington Supreme Court reviewed the trial court’s dismissal of notices of special death penalty sentencing proceedings in the cases of Joseph T. McEnroe and Michele Kristen Anderson. The court held that RCW 10.95.040 permits a prosecutor to consider the strength of the State’s evidence, along with mitigating circumstances and other case-specific factors, when deciding whether to file such a notice. The court reversed and remanded with instructions to reinstate the notices, declining to reach the parties’ separation-of-powers arguments.

Holdings

1. RCW 10.95.040 permits prosecutors to consider the strength of the State's evidence, along with the facts and circumstances of the crime and mitigating information, when determining whether there is reason to believe that mitigating circumstances are insufficient to merit leniency.
2. A prosecutor does not violate equal protection by making an individualized decision whether to seek capital punishment based on mitigating factors, the facts and circumstances of the crime, the strength of the evidence, and other case-specific considerations, so long as the decision is not governed by an inflexible or standardless policy.
3. The court declined to reach the separation-of-powers issue because the case could be fairly resolved through statutory interpretation.

Questions Presented

1. Whether RCW 10.95.040 permits a prosecutor to consider the strength of the State's evidence when deciding whether to file a notice of a special death penalty sentencing proceeding.
2. Whether consideration of the strength of the evidence, together with individualized consideration of mitigating circumstances and other case-specific factors, violates equal protection.
3. Whether the court should decide the parties' separation-of-powers challenge to Washington's capital punishment scheme.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded