Washington Supreme Court, 1995

The Washington Supreme Court reversed the trial court and vacated a retroactive child‑support order, holding that the court lacked authority under CR 60(b) or RCW 26.09.170 to retroactively modify a five‑year‑old support decree, and that equitable principles cannot override the statutory prohibition on retroactive…

The Washington Supreme Court, en banc, affirmed Blake Pirtle's convictions for two counts of aggravated first degree murder and his death sentence, rejecting challenges to the prosecutor's death-penalty notice decision, the sufficiency of the premeditation and aggravator evidence, the admission of the Montana guilty…

The Washington Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals and reinstated Ford Powell, Jr.'s second degree murder conviction for the manual strangulation of his wife Carrie, holding that nearly all of the challenged prior-misconduct and hearsay evidence was properly admitted.

The court rejected the challenges resolved in the available portion of the opinion, including objections to forensic testing, the sufficiency of the evidence, the search warrants, jury instructions, and penalty-phase evidence.