Mitchell Rupe

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Mitchell Rupe (1955–February 8, 2006) was a convicted murderer who died of liver disease in the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla, Washington. Rupe had been tried several times for the same crime, a 1981 robbery in which he shot and killed two bank tellers in Olympia, Washington. Rupe was sentenced to die, but in 1994, a United States federal judge held that Rupe was too heavy to hang. Rupe was 400 pounds at the time, and the judge was concerned that execution by hanging could cause Rupe to be decapitated, which would constitute cruel and unusual punishment.

Rupe’s 2000 re-trial allowed him to escape a renewed death sentence when the jury deadlocked by an 11-1 vote in favor of the death penalty, falling short of the unanimous verdict required by Washington law for imposition of a death sentence.