IN RE LaHAPELLE

• Decision Date: 18 November 2004
• Docket Number: No. 74092-5., No. 73794-1
• Citation: 153 Wn.2d 1,153 Wash.2d 1,100 P.3d 805
• Parties: In re the Personal Restraint of Christopher M. LaCHAPELLE, Petitioner. In re the Personal Restraint of Christopher R. Westfall, Petitioner.
• Court: Washington Supreme Court

100 P.3d 805

153 Wn.2d 1

153 Wash.2d 1

In re the Personal Restraint of Christopher M. LaCHAPELLE, Petitioner.

In re the Personal Restraint of Christopher R. Westfall, Petitioner.

Nos. 73794-1, 74092-5.

Supreme Court of Washington, En Banc.

Argued February 24, 2004.

Decided November 18, 2004.

Christopher LaChapelle, Pro se, Christopher Ross Westfall, Pro se, and Suzanne Lee Eliott, Seattle, for Petitioners.

Gerald Horne, Pierce County Prosecutor, Kathleen Proctor, John Michael Sheeran, Tacoma, Jeremy Randolph, Lewis County Prosecutor, Chehalis, for Respondent.

CHAMBERS, J.

We are asked again to examine the 1997, 2000, and 2002 amendments to the Sentencing Reform Act of 1981(SRA), chapter 9.94A RCW. We adhere to our decisions in State v. Cruz, 139 Wash.2d 186, 985 P.2d 384 (1999), State v. Smith, 144 Wash.2d 665, 30 P.3d 1245 (2001), and State v. Varga, 151 Wash.2d 179, 86 P.3d 139 (2004), and hold that under the 2000 amendment to the SRA, the trial court should not have counted previously "washed out" convictions in calculating an offender score for the purpose of sentencing. We therefore reverse and remand for the petitioners to be resentenced.

Christopher M. LaChapelle was born in 1981, and turned 15 on April 25, 1996. In March 1995, when he was 13, LaChapelle committed third degree assault. Then in November 1996, when he was 15, LaChapelle committed burglary.¹

Christopher R. Westfall was born in 1982, and turned 15 on September 10, 1997. In March 1997, when he was 14, Westfall committed second degree possession of stolen property.² Then in August 1998, when he was 15, Westfall committed forgery.³

Prior to the 1997 SRA amendment, juvenile offenses committed before the age of 15 were not included as prior offenses in the calculation of offender scores for current offenses. Former RCW 9.94A.030(12)(b)(ii) (1996); Smith, 144 Wash.2d at 671, 30 P.3d 1245. Therefore, the offense committed by LaChapelle when he was 13 and the offense committed by Westfall when he was 14 were not included in the definition of "criminal history" before the 1997 amendment to the SRA. Before the 1997 amendment to the SRA, offenses committed before age 15 were often described as washed out because they were not included in defendants' criminal histories nor used to calculate their offender scores. However, technically, the offenses never existed as criminal history in the first place, and therefore nothing existed to be washed out. The 1997 SRA amendment changed the definition of "criminal history" so that juvenile offenses committed both before and after the age of 15 no longer washed out and are to be included as prior offenses in the calculation of offender scores for current offenses. LAWS OF 1997, ch. 338, § 2; former RCW 9.94A.030(12)(b) (1997). Criminal history under the 1997 SRA amendment was defined as "the list of a defendant's prior convictions and juvenile adjudications, whether in this state, in federal court, or elsewhere." Id. § .030(12).

After the 1997 amendment to the SRA, LaChapelle was convicted of first degree robbery and first degree kidnapping with a firearm enhancement. These offenses occurred on January 18, 1998. At sentencing, the trial court calculated his offender score by including his March 1995 offense even though he was under 15 at the time and the crime was committed before the 1997 SRA amendment. Similarly, after the 1997 amendment, Westfall was convicted of first degree conspiracy to commit robbery, robbery in the first degree, second degree possession of a firearm, and possession of a stolen firearm. These offenses occurred on November 10, 1998. At sentencing, the trial court calculated his offender score for each offense by including his March 1997 offense even though it was committed before the 1997 SRA amendment took effect. Both young men filed personal restraint petitions; we granted review and consolidated both petitions.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

Our review is de novo because statutory interpretation is a question of law. State v. Beaver, 148 Wash.2d 338, 344, 60 P.3d 586 (2002). However, under the doctrine of stare decisis, "once we have `decided an issue of state law, that interpretation is binding until we overrule it.'" Soproni v. Polygon Apartment Partners, 137 Wash.2d 319, 327 n. 3, 971 P.2d 500 (1999) (quoting Hamilton v. Dep't of Labor & Indus., 111 Wash.2d 569, 571, 761 P.2d 618 (1988)).

ANALYSIS

TIME BAR

Generally, collateral attacks on judgments and sentences are prohibited if not brought within one year of becoming final. RCW 10.73.090(1). However, the one-year statutory time bar is not applicable to judgments and sentences that appear facially invalid. Id. A sentence, which was improperly calculated using previously washed out juvenile offenses, is invalid on its face. In re Pers. Restraint of Goodwin, 146 Wash.2d 861, 865-67, 50 P.3d 618 (2002). Because LaChapelle and Westfall have met their prima facie burden of demonstrating that their sentences were invalid on their face, their petitions are not time barred. Id.

SRA HISTORY

The SRA became effective in 1984. It attempted to create more certainty and uniformity in sentencing, to make sentencing more dependent upon the crime committed and criminal history of the offender, and to reduce the discretion of trial judges. David Boerner & Roxanne Lieb, Sentencing Reform in the Other Washington, 28 CRIME & JUST. 71, 84-87 (2001). The SRA utilizes objective criteria to establish sentencing ranges. The sentencing judge must calculate, in a mathematical fashion, an offender score for each offense. This score determines the sentencing range applicable to the offender. The calculation may require not only the analysis of statutes of other states but also analysis and coordination of numerous amendments to the SRA.

The difference of a single point may add or subtract three years to an offender's sentence. Therefore, the accurate interpretation and application of the SRA is of great importance to both the State and the offender. Because each offense must be analyzed under the law in effect at the time the offense was committed, each time the SRA is amended, it adds an additional level of complexity to the task of the courts, as well as the prosecution, the defense, and the Department of Corrections. State v. Jones, 118 Wash.App. 199, 76 P.3d 258 (2003), is illustrative. In Jones, the trial court was required to analyze and attempt to harmonize three separate amendments to the SRA. As Judge Dean Morgan observed in Jones, "[i]t is extremely difficult to identify what statute applies to a given crime, much less to coordinate that statute with others that may be related." Id. at 211-12, 76 P.3d 258. Since the SRA was adopted in 1981, it has been amended by 181 session laws.⁴ The complexity and difficulty applying the SRA is exacerbated by each successive change to the SRA. Interpreting and harmonizing amendments to the SRA has increasingly occupied the time of both trial and appellate courts. In all likelihood this trend will continue. In the 58th legislature alone, 97 bills were introduced, which proposed a total of 262 changes to the SRA. Not withstanding constant modifications to the law, courts strive to make the law clear, understandable, and predictable.

RETROSPECTIVITY AND PROSPECTIVITY OF SENTENCING AMENDMENTS

Our holding is controlled by three of our prior decisions dealing with retrospectivity and prospectivity of sentencing amendments: Cruz, Smith, and Varga. We recently analyzed Cruz and Smith in Varga. All these cases required us to apply successive amendments to the SRA, which changed the basis for offender score calculations. Offender scores, of course, determine presumptive sentencing ranges. As we noted in Cruz, before the 1990 amendment to the SRA, a defendant who had 10 years in the community without a felony conviction was effectively entitled to have that conviction disappear from the calculation of his offender score. Cruz, 139 Wash.2d at 189, 985 P.2d 384; former RCW 9.94A.360 (1988 Supp.). Cruz was convicted of rape in 1975 and spent more than 10 years in the community without another felony conviction. Cruz, 139 Wash.2d at 188, 985 P.2d 384. His conviction had washed out. Id. at 189, 985 P.2d 384. In 1990, the legislature amended the statute by eliminating sex offenses from the wash out provision. LAWS OF 1990, ch. 3, § 706. In 1994, Cruz was charged and found guilty of the rape of a child in the first degree. Cruz, 139 Wash.2d at 187, 985 P.2d 384. His 1975 conviction was included in his offender score. Id. at 188, 985 P.2d 384. The issue before the court was whether by resurrecting Cruz's 1975 conviction the 1990 amendment to the SRA violated federal and state constitutional protections against ex post facto legislation. However, upon review, we found it unnecessary to reach the constitutional issues because we found no legislative intent to apply the legislation retroactively.

The presumption against retroactive application of a statute "is an essential thread in the mantle of protection that the law affords the individual citizen. That presumption `is deeply rooted in our jurisprudence, and embodies a legal doctrine centuries older than our Republic.'" Lynce v. Mathis, 519 U.S. 433, 439, 117 S.Ct. 891, 895, 137 L.Ed.2d 63 (1997) (quoting Landgraf v. USI Film Prods., 511 U.S. 244, 265, 114 S.Ct. 1483, 1497, 128 L.Ed.2d 229 (1994)). See also In re Personal Restraint of Shepard, 127 Wash.2d 185, 193, 898 P.2d 828 (1995)

(court presumes newly enacted statutes operate prospectively). The constitutional prohibition against ex post facto legislation is but a further manifestation of the repugnance with which such retroactive legislation is viewed. See Landgraf, 511 U.S. at 266, [114 S.Ct. 1483,

128 L.Ed.2d 229 (1994)].

Cruz, 139 Wash.2d at 190-91, 985 P.2d 384.

In Cruz, we also observed that assuming constitutional concerns were satisfied, the SRA could be applied retroactively, but only if the legislative...