In the two months since the Washington Supreme Court struck down the state’s felony drug possession law, the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office has been working to review every conviction made in Lewis County going back to 1971 to dismiss charges and resentence defendants.
Those who have already been sentenced for a possession of a controlled substance charge are being officially called back to court for resentencing, and if defendants have other felony convictions on their record, there’s a chance that those too could be resentenced due to Washington’s sentencing system, which scores offenders based on the severity and number of felony charges are on their record.
The “aggressive approach” to carrying out the supreme court order is intended to ensure that his office doesn’t overlook any cases impacted by the decision, said Prosecutor Jonathan Meyer.
“Even on like a residential burglary, they may have had four prior drug convictions that would have impacted the time that they served. And so in order to not miss anything, we’re looking at every conviction,” Meyer said.
So far, Meyer’s office has gone through 4,000 cases.
Of those, 1,000 have been dismissed.
“If it was a possession-only case, it goes away in its entirety,” Meyer said.
Any funds that they paid into the fines, fees and assessments in those cases are ordered to be refunded, but they can also be applied to any other legal financial obligations the defendants have.
If the case involves multiple charges — one count of simple possession and one count of residential burglary, for example — then the possession charge would go away and the prosecutor’s office would “look at the financial obligation” to determine how much of what the defendant paid was related to that possession charge, Meyer said.
In cases where the possession charge was filed as part of an agreement with prosecutors to reduce a more serious charge, such as delivery of a controlled substance, “then the defendant has to bring that motion, because our position is the delivery charge would then come back,” Meyer said.
Defendants convicted on other charges who have already completed prison sentences that may have been reduced if they hadn’t had a possession charge in their criminal history should not expect their cases to be resentenced, Meyer said.
“We’re not touching that at all. We just note that resentencing would be moot,” Meyer said.
The Washington State Office of Public Defense has granted Lewis County $84,396, which is available starting June 1, to pay for legal representation for people seeking to vacate felony convictions or have felony resentencing hearings related to the State v. Blake Washington Supreme Court decision.
With thousands of cases still to go through, the Lewis County Prosecutor’s Office is prioritizing in-custody cases, cases out on warrants and cases with defendants on probation, Meyer said. From there, staff are reviewing cases by year, going backward in time. Staff are expected to begin reviewing cases filed in 2017 next week, Meyer said.
But if you know you have an older case impacted by the Blake decision, you can reach out to the prosecutor’s office and have your case reviewed sooner. The prosecutor’s office has a form up on its website at https://lewiscountywa.gov/offices/prosecutor/ that can be completed and submitted online.
