There is an extraordinarily high bar to criminally prosecute police officers when they kill someone in Washington State—one that the legislature decided last week to leave in place.
State law requires prosecutors to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that officers used deadly force “with malice.” The law, passed in 1986, is one of the most restrictive in the nation. When Seattle police officer Ian Birk shot and killed Native American woodcarver John T. Williams in 2010, virtually everyone was horrified, and the police department itself said Birk violated policy. But King County prosecutors declined to charge Birk because they wouldn’t be able to prove that Birk acted with malicious intent.
The result of this law is that over the past decade—there have been 213 killings by police officers in this state, according to an analysis by the Seattle Times—only one officer has faced charges. No one has been convicted…