Lise Olsen Receives WSBA Excellence in Legal Journalism Award

Seattle, Washington, September 12, 2002 — Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter Lise Olsen will be recognized as the recipient of the Washington State Bar Association (WSBA) Excellence in Legal Journalism Award today in Seattle. This award recognizes that describing the context, facts and players in the legal system with fairness and sensitivity requires intelligence, knowledge, dedication and high skill levels. It is given to a journalist who sets the standard for relevance, clarity, accuracy and understanding in reporting.

Lise Olsen is being recognized for her series "Uncertain Justice," about the death penalty in Washington . She spent nearly a year tracking WSBA records, judges' reports on death-penalty cases, and interviewing serial killers for a review of two decades of capital punishment in Washington . Based largely on her findings, the Washington State Supreme Court revamped its rules for lawyers in death-penalty cases in June of this year. Starting next year, every death-penalty lawyer used in Washington cases must be certified as qualified by a Supreme Court subcommittee. Ms. Olsen's series earned awards from the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Thurgood Marshall Award, sponsored by the Death Penalty Information Center.

Ms. Olsen often writes about civil rights and criminal justice. One of her previous stories about immigrants being held indefinitely led to a 2001 U.S. Supreme Court case, in which the Court called the practice unconstitutional.

Olsen previously served as founding director of Periodistas de Investigación, the Mexican version of Investigative Reporters and Editors, a nonprofit journalism organization. In that role and as a volunteer, she has provided training to journalists in the United States and in Latin America in investigative reporting.

The Washington State Bar Association is a private, nonprofit organization authorized by the Washington State Supreme Court to license the state's 26,600 lawyers. The WSBA both regulates lawyers under the authority of the Court and serves its members as a professional association — all without public funding. As a regulatory agency, it administers the bar exam, provides record-keeping and licensing functions, and administers the lawyer discipline program. As a professional association, the WSBA provides continuing legal education for attorneys, in addition to numerous other educational and member service activities.