## Facts

- In 1996, Allen Eugene Gregory raped, robbed, and murdered G.H. in her home.
- In 1998, during an investigation of unrelated rape allegations by R.S., police searched Gregory’s vehicle and found a knife later found consistent with G.H.’s murder weapon.
- Police also obtained a blood sample that connected Gregory to DNA from G.H.’s crime scene.
- Gregory was charged with aggravated first degree murder for G.H.’s death and separately charged and convicted of three counts of first degree rape tied to R.S.’s allegations.
- In 2001, a jury convicted Gregory of aggravated first degree murder and recommended a death sentence.
- The Washington Supreme Court later reversed the first death sentence due to prosecutorial misconduct in penalty-phase closing argument and because the rape convictions had been relied on during the penalty phase.
- On remand, a new penalty-phase jury again recommended death.
- After the first trial, the State concluded a witness in the rape case lied, moved to dismiss the rape charges, and the trial court dismissed them with prejudice.

## Issues

1. Whether Washington’s death penalty, as administered, violates article I, section 14 of the Washington Constitution (cruel punishment) because it is imposed in an arbitrary and racially biased manner.
2. Whether Washington’s statutory proportionality review of death sentences cures or mitigates alleged constitutional defects in capital sentencing.
3. Whether the trial court in the resentencing proceeding should have reconsidered guilt-phase challenges in light of later developments, including dismissal of the rape charges.

## Decision

- The Washington Supreme Court reversed Gregory’s death sentence.
- The court held Washington’s death penalty scheme, as administered, violated article I, section 14 because it was imposed in an arbitrary and racially biased manner and failed to serve any legitimate penological goal.
- The court held statutory proportionality review did not cure the systemic arbitrariness and racial bias shown by the record, including statistical evidence.
- The court remanded with instructions to convert Gregory’s sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
- The court declined to reopen Gregory’s underlying conviction and limited relief to the sentencing outcome.

## Legal Principles

- Under article I, section 14 of the Washington Constitution, a punishment violates the cruel punishment clause when, as administered, it is imposed arbitrarily and with racial bias.
- A state supreme court may decide constitutional questions on independent state constitutional grounds that provide greater protection than federal constitutional minima.
- Empirical statistical evidence may be used to evaluate whether a punishment system is administered in a racially biased and arbitrary manner under a state constitution.
- Statutory proportionality review of individual death sentences does not necessarily remedy systemwide arbitrariness or racial disparity in capital sentencing.
- When a death sentence is invalidated on state constitutional grounds in a capital case, the appropriate remedy may be resentencing to life without the possibility of parole rather than relitigation of guilt-phase issues.

## Conclusion

The Washington Supreme Court invalidated the death penalty as administered under the state constitution because capital sentencing operated arbitrarily and with racially disparate outcomes, held proportionality review insufficient to fix those defects, reversed Gregory’s death sentence, and ordered resentencing to life without parole while leaving the conviction intact.


State v. Gregory, 427 P.3d 621 (Wash. 2018)