State v. Blake: Its Significance, Its Impact, and County Resources for Those Convicted of Unlawful Possession
<p>Justice Gordon McCloud, writing for a five justice majority, held that the statute “makes possession of a controlled substance a felony punishable by up to five years in prison, plus a hefty fine; leads to deprivation of numerous other rights and opportunities; and does all this without proof that the defendant even knew they possessed the substance.” Justice Gordon McCloud noted that Washington was the only state in the nation to not have a mental state element in its drug possession statute and that this violates the due process clauses by “taking innocent and passive conduct with no criminal intent at all and punishing it as a serious crime.”</p>
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