State v. White

State v. White, 60 Wn.2d 551 (Wash. 1962), was a landmark case before the Washington Supreme Court concerning the insanity defense, capital punishment, and due process rights of defendants in capital cases. The case arose from the prosecution of Don Anthony White, a 22-year-old Black man convicted of two murders in Seattle's Yesler Terrace housing project in 1959.

White’s defense, led by attorneys David W. Weyer and James C. Young, argued that he was legally insane at the time of the killings. The case became one of the first in the United States since the 19th century in which a Black defendant avoided execution through an insanity defense, and it played a nationally recognized role in shaping debate on race, mental health, and the death penalty.