wa-law.org > bill > 2023-24 > HB 1640 > Original Bill
(1) No person serving a sentence imposed pursuant to this chapter and committed to the custody of the department shall leave the confines of the correctional facility or be released prior to the expiration of the sentence except as follows:
Nothing in chapter 1, Laws of 1994 shall ever be interpreted or construed as to reduce or eliminate the power of the governor to grant a pardon or clemency to any offender . However, the people recommend that any offender subject to total confinement for life without the possibility of parole not be considered for release until the offender has reached the age of at least sixty years old and has been judged to be no longer a threat to society. The people further recommend that sex offenders be held to the utmost scrutiny under this subsection regardless of age.
Nothing in this section shall ever be interpreted or construed to grant any release for the purpose of reducing prison overcrowding. Furthermore, the governor shall provide twice yearly reports on the activities and progress of offenders subject to total confinement for life without the possibility of parole who are released through executive action during the governor's tenure. These reports shall continue for not less than ten years after the release of the offender or upon the death of the released offender.
Whenever a prisoner has been sentenced to death, the governor shall have power to commute such sentence to imprisonment for life at hard labor; and in all cases in which the governor is authorized to grant pardons or commute sentence of death, the governor may, upon the petition of the person convicted, commute a sentence or grant a pardon, upon such conditions, and with such restrictions, and under such limitations as the governor may think proper; and the governor may issue a warrant to all proper officers to carry into effect such pardon or commutation, which warrant shall be obeyed and executed, instead of the sentence, if any, which was originally given. The governor may also, on good cause shown, grant respites or reprieves from time to time as the governor may think proper. Nothing in this section shall be interpreted to limit the governor's authority to grant a pardon or commutation for a sentence, other than a sentence of death, regardless of whether the governor receives a petition from the person convicted.