Washington County, Maryland is included in the Hagerstown-Martinsburg, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA Combined Statistical Area. The closes states to Washington County is west Virginia, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Tennessee. The western portions of the Province of Maryland (including present Washington County) were incorporated into Prince George's County in 1696. This original county included six current counties. The first to be created was Frederick, separated from Prince George's County in 1748. Following independence, the sovereign State of Maryland formed Washington County on September 6, 1776, by the division of Frederick County. At the same time, a portion
Capital punishment in Washington (state) moratorium. All death penalty cases that come to Inslee will result in him issuing a reprieve, not a pardon or commutation. On January 16, 2017, Governor Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson introduced legislation to abolish the death penalty in Washington state. Though the legislation failed to pass, Governor Inslee stated a commitment to ending capital punishment in the future. On October 11, 2018, the Washington State Supreme Court ruled the current death penalty statute unconstitutional, on the ground that it resulted in racial bias, thus abolishing capital punishment in the state. It became the 20th state in the nation