The Washington Supreme Court struck down the state’s strict liability felony drug possession statute on Thursday which made possession of a controlled substance a felony punishable by up to five years in prison, even if the person did not know they had the drug in their possession.
In a 5 to 4 ruling, the court decided that the state’s strict liability drug possession statute was unconstitutional, violating due process clause protections by “taking innocent and passive conduct with no criminal intent at all and punishing it as a serious crime.”
The ruling stems from the 2016 arrest of Shannon Blake of Spokane. Officers were issuing a search warrant for stolen
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