Court Opinion

ID: 9565320
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:19:13.991718+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:33.481897
License: Public Domain

Dimmick, J.
(dissenting) — I dissent. Assuming arguendo that the failure formally to connect Reismiller to the marijuana cigarette produced at the disciplinary hearing violated due process, the majority nevertheless errs in remanding Reismiller's case for a new hearing. This court will remand a personal restraint petition for a full hearing on the merits only when the petitioner meets his burden of making at least a prima facie showing of actual prejudice. In re Hews, 99 Wn.2d 80, 88, 660 P.2d 263 (1983). As the majority concedes, the failure to connect the cigarette to Reismiller is prejudicial only if that cigarette was not the one taken from his cell. Reismiller has never argued that the cigarette produced at the hearing was not the one found in his cell. Therefore, he has failed to meet his burden under Hews, and his petition should be dismissed.
*299In light of Reismiller's failure to make even a prima facie showing of actual prejudice resulting from the supposed constitutional error, it is unclear to me what the majority expects the disciplinary hearing committee to do on remand. The majority rejected Reismiller's contention that the hearing committee acted arbitrarily and capriciously in finding that the cigarette before it was marijuana without the benefit of a laboratory analysis; thus, there is no problem with the physical evidence. Reismiller does not argue that the cigarette before the committee was not the one found in his cell. It appears that it remains only for the hearing committee to enter a formal statement on the record that the cigarette identified as marijuana was the one found in Reismiller's possession. Since I cannot subscribe to such an unnecessary exercise, I dissent.
Williams, C.J., and Rosellini and Brachtenbach, JJ., concur with Dimmick, J.