The last execution that occurred in Washington state had the support of the previous Attorney General’s office.

Is it the Legislature’s job to decide the fate of the death penalty?

Now, former state Attorney General Rob McKenna says he is beginning to come around “to the notion that we can get by without the death penalty in our state.”

Cal Colburn Brown, who admitted to, and was convicted of murdering Holly Washa in 1991, was executed by lethal injection in September 2010.

It’s delays, the expenses incurred, and “uncertainty” that has McKenna questioning whether the state needs the death penalty. The “drip, drip, drip” of the judicial process is expensive, he said. Plus, it’s not even applied consistently throughout the state due to the cost — less wealthy jurisdictions tend to shy away from it.

Even Gary Ridgway — the Green River Killer — was able to avoid the death penalty after murdering at least 48 women. The fact that he’s now sitting in the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla is “good enough,” McKenna says.

King, Snohomish prosecutors’ opposing views

Though some argue that the death penalty is the only deterrent for people serving life sentences to not commit further crimes, McKenna says he doesn’t see a higher rate of murder within prisons in states that don’t have the death penalty.

Whether the it is abolished, however, may need to be a voter decision.

Listen to the entire interview here.