The Washington Supreme Court held that Steven Reichenbach received ineffective assistance of counsel because his attorney failed to move to suppress a baggie of methamphetamine that police seized in violation of article I, section 7 of the Washington State Constitution.
Washington Supreme Court, 2004
Published opinions from 2004. The case name opens the case page.
2004 opinions
The court rejected the petitioner’s guilt-phase ineffective-assistance claims, concluding that the brief shackling exposure did not create actual and substantial prejudice in light of the overwhelming evidence of guilt and rejecting his other claims shown in the opinion.
WashingtonThe State of Washington, Petitioner v. James A. Kitchen, Respondent. in the Matter of the Personal Restraint of…
July 6, 2004110 Wash. 2d 403
Consolidating three matters, the Washington Supreme Court clarified the harmless error standard for 'multiple acts' prosecutions in which the State failed to elect the act it relied upon and the trial court gave no unanimity instruction: the error is harmless only if no rational trier of fact could have entertained a…
The court affirmed Thomas’s convictions for first degree murder, residential burglary, and first degree unlawful possession of a firearm, but reversed the aggravated first degree murder conviction and death sentence because the jury instructions did not require the necessary individualized findings and those errors…