| Passed by the House February 8, 2006 Yeas 98 FRANK CHOPP ________________________________________ Speaker of the House of Representatives Passed by the Senate March 1, 2006 Yeas 47 BRAD OWEN ________________________________________ President of the Senate | I, Richard Nafziger, Chief Clerk of the House of Representatives of the State of Washington, do hereby certify that the attached is HOUSE BILL 2328 as passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate on the dates hereon set forth. RICHARD NAFZIGER ________________________________________ Chief Clerk | |
| Approved March 17, 2006. CHRISTINE GREGOIRE ________________________________________ Governor of the State of Washington | March 17, 2006 - 11:33 a.m. Secretary of State State of Washington |
| State of Washington | 59th Legislature | 2005 Regular Session |
Read first time 04/18/2005. Referred to Committee on Judiciary.
AN ACT Relating to the insanity defense; amending RCW 10.77.020; and creating a new section.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec. 1 RCW 10.77.020 and 1998 c 297 s 30 are each amended to read
as follows:
(1) At any and all stages of the proceedings pursuant to this
chapter, any person subject to the provisions of this chapter shall be
entitled to the assistance of counsel, and if the person is indigent
the court shall appoint counsel to assist him or her. A person may
waive his or her right to counsel; but such waiver shall only be
effective if a court makes a specific finding that he or she is or was
competent to so waive. In making such findings, the court shall be
guided but not limited by the following standards: Whether the person
attempting to waive the assistance of counsel, does so understanding:
(a) The nature of the charges;
(b) The statutory offense included within them;
(c) The range of allowable punishments thereunder;
(d) Possible defenses to the charges and circumstances in
mitigation thereof; and
(e) All other facts essential to a broad understanding of the whole
matter.
(2) Whenever any person is subjected to an examination pursuant to
any provision of this chapter, he or she may retain an expert or
professional person to perform an examination in his or her behalf. In
the case of a person who is indigent, the court shall upon his or her
request assist the person in obtaining an expert or professional person
to perform an examination or participate in the hearing on his or her
behalf. An expert or professional person obtained by an indigent
person pursuant to the provisions of this chapter shall be compensated
for his or her services out of funds of the department, in an amount
determined by the secretary to be fair and reasonable.
(3) Any time the defendant is being examined by court appointed
experts or professional persons pursuant to the provisions of this
chapter, the defendant shall be entitled to have his or her attorney
present.
(4) In a competency evaluation conducted under this chapter, the
defendant may refuse to answer any question if he or she believes his
or her answers may tend to incriminate him or her or form links leading
to evidence of an incriminating nature.
(5) In a sanity evaluation conducted under this chapter, if a
defendant refuses to answer questions or to participate in an
examination conducted in response to the defendant's assertion of an
insanity defense, the court shall exclude from evidence at trial any
testimony or evidence from any expert or professional person obtained
or retained by the defendant.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 2 This act applies to all examinations
performed on or after the effective date of this act.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 3 If any provision of this act or its
application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, the
remainder of the act or the application of the provision to other
persons or circumstances is not affected.