Washington
Judicial system
The state's highest court, the supreme court, consists of nine justices serving six-year terms; three justices are elected by nonpartisan ballot in each even-numbered year. The chief justice is elected to a four-year term by members of the court. The courts' senior judge holds the title of associate chief justice. Appeals of superior court decisions are usually heard in the court of appeals, whose 21 judges are elected to staggered six-year terms. The superior courts are the state's felony trial courts. There
Washington Presidential Vote by Political Parties, 1948–2000
| YEAR | ELECTORAL VOTE | WASHINGTON WINNER | DEMOCRAT | REPUBLICAN | PROGRESSIVE | SOCIALIST | PROHIBITION | SOCIALIST LABOR | CONSTITUTION |
| * Won US presidential election. | |||||||||
| 1948 | 8 | *Truman (D) | 476,165 | 386,315 | 31,692 | 3,534 | 6,117 | 1,113 | — |
| 1952 | 9 | *Eisenhower (R) | 492,845 | 599,107 | 2,460 | — | — | 633 | 7,290 |
| 1956 | 9 | *Eisenhower (R) | 523,002 | 620,430 | — | — | — | 7,457 | |
| 1960 | 9 | Nixon (R) | 599,298 | 629,273 | — | — | — | 10,895 | 1,401 |
| 1964 | 9 | *Johnson (D) | 779,699 | 470,366 | — | — | — | 7,772 | — |
| PEACE & FREEDOM | AMERICAN IND. | ||||||||
| 1968 | 9 | Humphrey (D) | 616,037 | 588,510 | 1,669 | — | 96,900 | 491 | — |
| PEOPLE'S LIBERTARIAN | AMERICAN | ||||||||
| 1972 | 9 | *Nixon (R) | 568,334 | 837,135 | 2,644 | 1,537 | _ | 1,102 | 58,906 |
| 1976 | 9 | Ford (R) | 717,323 | 777,732 | 1,124 | 5,042 | 8,585 | — | 5,046 |
| CITIZENS | SOC. WORKERS | ||||||||
| 1980 | 9 | *Reagan (R) | 650,193 | 865,244 | 9,403 | 29,213 | — | 1,137 | — |
| 1984 | 9 | *Reagan (R) | 807,352 | 1,051,670 | 1,891 | 8,844 | — | — | — |
| NEW ALLIANCE | WORKER'S WORLD | ||||||||
| 1988 | 9 | Dukakis (D) | 933,516 | 903,835 | 3,520 | 17,240 | 1,440 | 1,290 | — |
| IND. (Perot) | TAXPAYERS | NATURAL LAW | POPULIST | ||||||
| 1992 | 11 | *Clinton (D) | 993,037 | 731,234 | 541,780 | 7,533 | 2,354 | 2,456 | 4,854 |
| IND. (Nader) | |||||||||
| 1996 | 11 | *Clinton (D) | 1,123,323 | 840,712 | 201,003 | 12,522 | 60,322 | — | — |
| FREEDOM (Buchanan) | GREEN (Nader) | — | — | ||||||
| 2000 | 11 | Gore (D) | 1,247,652 | 1,108,864 | 7,171 | 13,135 | 103,002 | 2,927 | — |
are 176 district and municipal courts; they hear traffic and misdemeanor matters.
Prisoners in state or federal correctional facilities numbered 15,242 in June 2001, an increase of 3.7% over the previous year. The state's incarceration rate stood at 251 per 100,000 population. In 2001, Washington's crime index rate was 5,151.9 per 100,000 inhabitants, including a total of 21,258 violent crimes and 287,234 crimes against property in that year. Washington imposes the death penalty and as of 2003 had 12 persons under sentence of death. There were four executions in the state between 1977 and 2003.