{{Short description|American judge (1949–2025)}} {{for|other people with the same name|Susan Owens (disambiguation)}} {{sources|date=March 2025}} {{Infobox officeholder |name = Susan Owens |office = Associate Justice of the Washington Supreme Court |term_start = January 1, 2001 |term_end = December 31, 2024 |predecessor = Phil Talmadge |successor = Sal Mungia |birth_date = {{Birth date|1949|8|19}} |birth_place = {{nowrap|Kinston, North Carolina, U.S.}} |death_date = {{Death date and age|2025|03|28|1949|08|19}} |death_place = California, U.S. |education = Duke University (BA)<br>University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill (JD) }}
'''Susan Owens''' (August 19, 1949 – March 28, 2025) was an American lawyer who served as an associate justice of the Washington Supreme Court from 2001 to 2024. On November 7, 2000, she was elected the seventh woman to serve on the court. She joined the court after serving nineteen years as district court judge in Western Clallam County, where she was the county's senior elected official with five terms. She also served as the Quileute Tribe's chief judge for five years and chief judge of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe for more than six years.
==Life and career== Owens was born on August 19, 1949 in Kinston, North Carolina,<ref>{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/whoswhoinamerica0000unse_h1j4/page/572/mode/2up|title=Who's Who in American Law, 2003-2004|year=2003|publisher=Marquis Who's Who|page=573}}</ref> where she was raised and graduated from high school. Her father, Frank Owens, was a small town general practitioner, and her mother, Hazel is a retired law enforcement officer. She attended college at Duke University. After graduation in 1971, she attended law school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, receiving her Juris Doctor in 1975. She was admitted to the Oregon State Bar in 1975, and the Washington State Bar in 1976.
Owens died in California on March 28, 2025, at the age of 75.<ref>{{Cite press release |title=Retired Washington Supreme Court Justice Susan Owens Passes Away |date=March 28, 2025 |publisher=Washington State Courts |url=https://www.courts.wa.gov/newsinfo/?fa=newsinfo.internetdetail&newsid=51710 |access-date=March 29, 2025}}</ref>
==Notable opinions== Owens signed the majority opinions sanctioning the delegations of very broad policy-setting powers to appointive-board governments.<ref>The Journal of State Judicature, 2012. Volume II, Washington // "Washington Supreme Court Taxing District Opinions" http://www.susan-owens.webs.com/</ref>
In September 2017, Owens wrote for the majority when, by a vote of 6–3, it upheld the child pornography trafficking conviction of a seventeen-year-old boy for sexting a picture of himself to an adult woman.<ref>{{Bluebook journal |first=|last=Note| title=Recent Case: Washington Supreme Court Affirms Child Pornography Conviction of Teenager| volume=131| journal=Harv. L. Rev. | page=1505 | url=https://harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/1505-1512_Online.pdf| year=2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite court |litigants=State v. Gray|vol=402 |reporter=P.3d |opinion=254 |court=Wash.|date=2017|url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=4545696783656636056|accessdate=}}</ref>
In October 2018, Owens concurred when the majority abolished the state's death penalty because they found its racist imposition violated the Constitution of Washington.<ref>{{Bluebook journal |first=|last=Note|title=Recent Case: Washington State Supreme Court Declares Death Penalty Unconstitutional In Washington|volume=132|journal=Harv. L. Rev. |page=1764|url=https://harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/1764-1771_Online.pdf|year=2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite court|litigants=State v. Gregory|vol=427|reporter=P.3d|opinion=621|court=Wash.|date=2018|url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=8854659891232700142|accessdate=}}</ref>
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.courts.wa.gov/appellate_trial_courts/supreme/bios/?fa=scbios.display_file&fileID=owens "Justice Susan Owens"], Washington Courts. Retrieved Jan 21, 2010.
{{s-start}} {{s-legal}} {{s-bef|before= Phil Talmadge}} {{s-ttl|title=Associate Justice of the Washington Supreme Court |years=2001–2024}} {{s-aft|after= Sal Mungia}} {{s-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Owens, Susan}} Category:1949 births Category:2025 deaths Category:21st-century American judges Category:21st-century American women judges Category:Duke University alumni Category:Justices of the Washington Supreme Court Category:People from Kinston, North Carolina Category:University of North Carolina School of Law alumni
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