Washington Supreme Court State vs Blake Drug Possession Law Payments

The first payments for people awarded clemency for simple possession charges in Washington started going out this week. This comes from the State vs Blake ruling.

State Vs Blake is a Washington supreme court ruling that found Washington’s simple possession law unconstitutional because it did not require the state to prove intent, in this case knowledge of possession of a controlled substance. This does not apply to charges related to distribution.

The law has since been rewritten to be constitutional.

Anyone who received a conviction under the simple possession law  is eligible to apply for clemency. People can apply to have their conviction vacated, sentence reduced, or court fines returned.

Additionally, any predicate felonies can possibly be removed from their record. An example of this is Washington’s unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, if the thing that made a person a felon in the first place was a simple possession charge.

Offender scores can also be reduced if points were added for a simple possession charge. According to Charlie Dow, Deputy prosecuting attorney for Benton-Franklin County combined district, the first payments for fines returned under State v Blake clemency started going out this week.