Court Opinion

ID: 9851746
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 05:18:55.140834+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:22:14.409515
License: Public Domain

Durham, J.
(dissenting) — I agree with the majority that there was no breach of the plea bargain. However, I respectfully dissent from the majority's conclusion that the defendant's conviction under RCW 9A.76.110, the general escape statute, violated his right to equal protection of the law. Unlike the majority, I find no difference between the mental state required for conviction under the general escape statute and that required for conviction under RCW 72.65.070, escape from a state work release facility. To the extent that State v. Danforth, 97 Wn.2d 255, 643 P.2d 882 (1982) must be read for the proposition that the requisite mens rea for the two statutes are different, I would overrule Danforth. As used in the two escape statutes, I find no difference between a "willful" act and an act made with knowledge that it would result in a forbidden consequence. Such artificial distinctions serve only to confuse the trier of fact and, in this case, to subvert the intent of the Legislature.
Historically, the requirement that a defendant's action be willful meant more than a requirement that a defendant act with knowledge of the consequences of his action. Willful, when used in a criminal statute, required that a defendant act with an evil purpose or criminal intent. United States v. Murdock, 290 U.S. 389, 394, 78 L. Ed. 381, 54 S. Ct. 223 (1933); United States v. Illinois Cent. R.R., 303 U.S. 239, 82 L. Ed. 773, 58 S. Ct. 533 (1938). The term willful continues to be interpreted to require such a heightened degree of culpability in the context of some statutes. See, e.g., *495United States v. Bishop, 412 U.S. 346, 359-60, 36 L. Ed. 2d 941, 93 S. Ct. 2008 (1973).
However, this is no longer the general rule. The meaning of the term willful has come to vary widely, depending upon its context. State v. Bauer, 92 Wn.2d 162, 595 P.2d 544 (1979); Spies v. United States, 317 U.S. 492, 87 L. Ed. 418, 63 S. Ct. 364 (1943). Prior to the enactment in 1975 of the revised criminal code, willful was generally interpreted to mean "an act committed intentionally, deliberately and/ or designedly as distinguished from one done accidently, inadvertently, innocently and/or with lawful excuse." State v. Oyen, 78 Wn.2d 909, 916, 480 P.2d 766 (1971); see also State v. Russell, 73 Wn.2d 903, 907, 442 P.2d 988 (1968). While certainly distinct from the historical definition requiring a showing of evil purpose, this definition of willful left unclear whether an act done with knowledge of its probable consequences would be considered to be willful.
Dissatisfaction with the confused state of the law concerning the mens rea requirements for a showing of criminal action led to the adoption of § 2.02, General Requirements of Culpability of the Model Penal Code. The drafters identified four levels of culpability into which all mental states were to be classified: (1) purpose, (2) knowledge, (3) recklessness, and (4) negligence. Model Penal Code § 2.02 (Tent. Draft 4, 1955). They identified a trend which equated the term willful with the second level of culpability — knowledge—and codified that trend as a presumption. Penal Code comments, at 130. An exception to this presumption is applied when "a purpose to impose further requirements plainly appears." Penal Code § 2.02(8).
In 1975, the Legislature adopted the provisions of the Model Penal Code identifying the four levels of culpability and establishing the definition of willful as the equivalent of acting with knowledge "unless a purpose to impose further requirements plainly appears." Laws of 1975, 1st Ex. Sess., ch. 260, § 9A.08.010, p. 826. The Legislature specifically directed that these general provisions of the revised *496criminal code were to apply to other defenses defined in Title 9A or any other statute, unless Title 9A or the other statute provides otherwise. RCW 9A.04.010(2). Thus, RCW 9A.08.010 applies to RCW 72.65.070 even though that statute was originally enacted in 1967.
If this court is to interpret the term "willful" as used in RCW 72.65.070 as different from "acting with knowledge", we must find some positive indication by the Legislature that such a heightened degree of culpability is required for the crime. In Danforth, the court offered no such indication of legislative intent on which to base its conclusion. Furthermore, the differences between the circumstances under which a defendant may escape from a detention facility and those under which a defendant may escape from a work release facility do not require that the mens rea differ for the two acts. There is a difference between going "over the wall" of a detention facility and failing to return to a work release facility. However, if a defendant acts, knowing that his actions will result in the forbidden consequence, he should be found guilty under either circumstance. The difference is in the evidence required to prove the mens rea, not in the mens rea itself. Evidence that a defendant left a guarded detention facility may, in itself, be sufficient for a jury to infer that the defendant acted with knowledge that his actions would result in leaving a detention facility without permission. However, evidence that a defendant failed to return to a work release facility is not, in and of itself, sufficient for a jury to infer that a defendant acted with knowledge that his action would result in a failure to return to the place of confinement at a designated time. Once a defendant has been admitted to a hospital emergency room or had his car break down, the defendant may know that he will not be able to return to the detention facility on time but will not have acted with knowledge of that consequence when he stepped off a curb in front of a bus or climbed into a car about to malfunction. This distinction between the circumstances under which one may be found guilty of escape from custody and those under which one may be *497found guilty of escape from a work release program exists and should be identified in a court's instructions to the jury. However, this distinction does not establish a different mens rea under the work release escape statute than that required under the general escape statute.
I would affirm the judgment and sentence.
Andersen and Callow, JJ., concur with Durham, J.
Reconsideration denied November 26, 1985.