Chris Lange, FISM News
Washington state lawmakers have introduced a new soft-on-crime bill that would eliminate enhanced murder charges in drive-by shootings on the basis that current laws are “systemically racist.”
As major U.S. cities struggle with record-breaking crime, including soaring murder rates, the shockingly tone-deaf legislative proposal sponsored by Democratic Representatives Tarra Simmons (D-Bremerton) and David Hackney (D-Tukwila) would remove drive-by shootings as a basis for enhanced murder charges. The duo pre-filed the bill ahead of the upcoming Jan.10 legislative session kickoff, even though Washington has been ranked among the worst states for drive-by shootings.
Rep. Simmons said it is evident the law “was targeted at gangs that were predominantly young and Black” in a statement to Fox News. “I believe in a society that believes in the power of redemption,” she said. “Murder is murder no matter where the bullet comes from but locking young people up and throwing away the key is not the answer.”
Since 1995, drive-by shootings have qualified as aggravating factors for first-degree murder charges, a class A felony punishable by a mandatory life sentence without parole. Other aggravating factors include the murder of law enforcement officers, murder-for-hire, and murders committed while incarcerated.
Abolishment of the aggravated first-degree murder charging option would mean violent offenders convicted of first-degree murder committed in the course of a drive-by shooting would face a minimum 20-year sentence. The bill would also benefit convicted felons who carried out their violent offenses prior to the age of 21 by giving the court “full discretion to depart from mandatory sentencing requirements,” thereby paving the way for their release from prison.
HOUSE BILL 1692 is also retroactive, meaning that, if passed, courts will be mandated to resentence convicted murderers if a drive-by shooting was the sole aggravating factor in the first-degree murder charge.
A convicted felon who became a lawyer after incarceration, Simmons ran on a platform of criminal justice reform. She previously introduced legislation to restore voting rights to roughly 26,000 convicted felons in her state. The bill was signed into law in March.