SEATTLE — The Washington Supreme Court has reinstated sweeping changes made to the King County inquest procedures in 2018, providing an expanded avenue for the families of people killed by police to seek answers and culpability.
In a unanimous opinion the justices on Thursday struck down most challenges by several county law enforcement agencies, including the King County Sheriff’s Office, which had argued successfully in superior court that King County Executive Dow Constantine had overstepped his authority in making the changes. The justices overturned the lower court ruling.
The Seattle Times reports that more significant, however, is that the justices agreed that coroner’s juries in King County can for the first time in over 40 years be asked to determine whether an individual killed by police died by “criminal means,” and in some cases require the officers to testify — something officers have routinely refused to do in the past.
Particularly, the high court ordered that the officers involved in the shooting deaths of Charleena Lyles and Damarius Butts, both killed by Seattle police in 2017, must testify.
