State v. Durrett

208 P.3d 1174
CourtCourt of Appeals of Washington
DecidedJune 1, 2009
Docket60728-6-I
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 208 P.3d 1174 (State v. Durrett) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Washington primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Durrett, 208 P.3d 1174 (Wash. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinion

208 P.3d 1174 (2009)

STATE of Washington, Respondent,
v.
Donnie W. DURRETT, Appellant.

No. 60728-6-I.

Court of Appeals of Washington, Division 1.

June 1, 2009.

*1175 Maureen Marie Cyr, Washington Appellate Project, Seattle, WA, for Appellant.

Erin S. Norgaard, King County Prosecuting Attorney, Seattle, WA, for Respondent.

AGID, J.

¶ 1 Donnie Durrett, a convicted sex offender, failed to report weekly to the King County sheriff during the period November 6, 2006 through November 17, 2006, and during the period December 6, 2006, through January 23, 2007. A jury found him guilty of two counts of failure to register as a sex offender. We agree with Durrett that the two convictions violate double jeopardy because they involve only one unit of prosecution. We also agree that under our recent decision in State v. Linerud,[1] Durrett's sentence violated the Sentencing Reform Act of 1981 (SRA), chapter 9.94A RCW, because the combined period of incarceration and community custody exceeded the statutory maximum. None of the issues raised in Durrett's statement of additional grounds for review has merit. We remand for resentencing on a single count of failure to register as a sex offender and entry of a sentence consistent with Linerud.

FACTS

¶ 2 Appellant Durrett has been registered as a sex offender with the King County Sheriff's Office since October 2004. Because he has no fixed residence, Durrett must also report weekly to the sheriff's office.

¶ 3 When Durrett was last released from jail on October 23, 2006, he reported to the sheriff's office on October 23, 2006, and again the following week of October 30, 2006. Durrett failed to report during the weeks of November 6 and November 13, 2006. He reported during the weeks of November 20 and November 27, 2006, and then did not report again until he was arrested on January 22, 2007.

¶ 4 The State charged Durrett with one count of failure to register as a sex offender, alleging that he failed to report weekly from December 6, 2006, through January 22, 2007. After the trial ended in a hung jury, the State amended the information to add a second count of failure to register, alleging that Durrett failed to report weekly from November 6, 2006 through November 17, 2006. On retrial, the jury found Durrett guilty as charged of both counts. At sentencing, the court imposed concurrent standard range terms of 43 months and community custody of 36 to 48 months. The court placed a handwritten notation on the judgment and sentence specifying that "[t]he total term of incarceration and community custody cannot exceed a combined term of 60 months."

DISCUSSION

¶ 5 Durrett contends that his conviction for two counts of failure to register as a sex offender violated double jeopardy because his failure to report weekly during the two charged time periods constituted only a single criminal act or one "unit of prosecution." The State responds that the legislature unambiguously specified that each weekly failure to report is a distinct and separate statutory *1176 violation that may be separately charged. Presumably, under this approach, the State could have charged Durrett with up to 10 counts of failure to register for the period from November 6, 2006, through January 23, 2007.

¶ 6 The double jeopardy provisions of both the state and federal constitutions prohibit multiple convictions under the same statute if the defendant has committed only "one unit of the crime."[2] Ultimately, the primary purpose of unit of prosecution analysis is to determine the legislature's intent under the specific criminal statute.[3] In undertaking this analysis, the court looks first to the plain language of the statute and, if necessary, to the legislative history.[4] "If a statute does not clearly and unambiguously identify the unit of prosecution, then we resolve any ambiguity under the rule of lenity to avoid `turning a single transaction into multiple offenses.'"[5] Appellate review of the unit of prosecution is de novo.[6] A double jeopardy challenge may be raised for the first time on appeal.[7]

¶ 7 Former RCW 9A.44.130 (2006) imposes on specified sex offenders a general duty to register with the sheriff of the county in which they live.[8] In addition, the statute sets forth in great detail the various procedures and reporting requirements that offenders must follow, once registered, in order to remain in compliance, or if they move or become homeless.[9] Failure to register within the time required is a per se violation.[10]

¶ 8 Durrett, who was properly registered with the King County sheriff, failed to comply with former 9A.44.130(6)(b), which requires offenders who have no fixed residence to "report weekly, in person, to the sheriff of the county where he or she is registered." He was then charged under former RCW 9A.44.130(11)(a), which provides that "[a] person who knowingly fails to comply with any of the requirements of this section is guilty of a class C felony."[11]

¶ 9 The State reasons that because "weekly" means once a week, the plain language of the statute defines each weekly failure to report as a separate and distinct violation of the statute. Durrett, pointing primarily to provisions in former RCW 9A.44.140 (2006), argues that failure to register is an ongoing single offense that does not terminate until certain statutory events occur. But neither the State nor Durrett offers any meaningful analysis of what legislative intent can be gleaned from the primary operative language of the charged offense: "knowingly fails to comply with any of the requirements of this section."

¶ 10 Our Supreme Court has recently emphasized the difficulty in determining legislative intent as to unit of prosecution from the definition of "any." In State v. Sutherby,[12] the court determined the unit of prosecution for possession of child pornography, which required it to consider whether possession of "any photograph" supports prosecution for each separate photograph.[13]

¶ 11 In reaching its decision, the court noted that the word "any" has "multiple, *1177 conflicting definitions," including both "one" and "all," and then reviewed the broad construction given the word "all" in prior decisions. Consistent with the broad meaning of "all" and the rule of lenity, the court concluded that the "any photograph" language supported only a single count, regardless of the number of images possessed:

Given the context of the language used in the child pornography statute, and our repeated construction of "any" as including "every" and "all," we hold that the proper unit of prosecution under former RCW 9.68A.070 is one count per possession of child pornography, without regard to the number of images comprising such possession or the number of minors depicted in the images possessed.[[14]]

¶ 12 The Sutherby court also pointed to the decision in State v. Westling[15] as particularly instructive. In Westling,

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Bluebook (online)
208 P.3d 1174, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-durrett-washctapp-2009.