Opinion ID: 2599993
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The words of RCW 9.94A.533(5)

Text: ¶ 24 RCW 9.94A.533(5) provides: The following additional times shall be added to the standard sentence range if the offender or an accomplice committed the offense while in a county jail or state correctional facility and the offender is being sentenced for one of the crimes listed in this subsection. . . . . . . . (c) Twelve months for offenses committed under RCW 69.50.4013. The majority concludes that RCW 9.94A.533(5) requires that a defendant took some voluntary act to be placed within the enhanced zone. Majority at 710 (emphasis added). But, as the majority acknowledges, the language of RCW 9.94A.533(5) is silent on whether a volitional act is required before imposing an enhancement. Majority at 708. The words voluntary, volitional, willful, and their kind do not appear in the statute. Words such as entered and be placed are conspicuously absent, showing that the legislature did not intend to include an actus reus. The majority adds words to the statute even though [w]e cannot add words or clauses to an unambiguous statute when the legislature has chosen not to include that language. State v. Delgado, 148 Wash.2d 723, 727, 63 P.3d 792 (2003). ¶ 25 The dictionary definitions of the words actually in RCW 9.94A.533(5) do not support a requirement of a voluntary act. The dictionary defines commit as to DO or PERFORM, with the usage example of convicted of committing crimes against the state. WEBSTER'S THIRD NEW INTERNATIONAL DICTIONARY 457 (2002). A dictionary definition of while is during the time that. Id. at 2604. With these definitions, RCW 9.94A.533(5) says that a sentence enhancement applies if the offender or an accomplice [did] the offense [during the time that] [the offender was] in a county jail or state correctional facility. The plain language of RCW 9.94A.533(5) does not evidence legislative intent to include an element of a voluntary act. [1] The words relate only to the circumstances surrounding the criminal offense defined in other statutes.