Opinion ID: 2634555
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: sra history

Text: 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.