OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington's three strikes, you're out law could be modified once again under a state House proposal submitted last week.
Under House Bill 1805, the crime of robbery in the second degree could be either a Class A or Class B felony based on the severity of the crime. Right now, robbery in the second degree is a Class B felony. It would be classified as a Class A felony if the "robbery is committed with the threatened use of immediate force, violence, or bodily injury" and doesn't involve circumstances that constitute robbery in the first degree.
Such an offense would then be counted under Washington's three-strikes law, which generally mandates a life sentence after three violent felony convictions.
State Rep. Jenny Graham, R-Spokane, introduced the proposal last week and said she was prompted to write the legislation by the case of murdered 14-year-old Chelsea Harrison of Vancouver, Wash.
In November 2005, Chelsea was at Roy Russell's apartment with a group of other teenagers. Russell, a then-45-year-old vacuum cleaner salesman, was known to throw underage drinking parties at his Vancouver apartment. Later that night, he tried to rape her. She fought back and Russell killed her, officials said.
Russell was convicted of second-degree murder — a charge that carries a sentencing range of 21 to 30 years in prison. Instead, a judge sentenced him to life under the state's three-strikes law, which generally mandates a life sentence after three violent felony convictions.
Then in 2019, lawmakers removed second-degree robbery as one of the felonies that constitutes a strike for future offenders. In the spring of 2021, lawmakers passed a new law, Senate Bill 5164 that made the change retroactive, allowing as many as 114 inmates to be resentenced. That included Russell, who was convicted of second-degree robbery prior to the murder.
Russell was resentenced to 26 years instead of life in prison. With time served, he could be released in nine years.
"My proposal is about justice for Chelsea and her family," said Graham. "The laws we pass in Olympia have consequences. The consequences of laws passed here over the past few years means a brutal murderer, a career violent offender, may be walking our streets one day instead of being locked up for life. This isn't right. Chelsea and her family deserve better than this. Our citizens deserve better than this."
In September, a man who was serving a life sentence for killing a Bellevue woman in a DUI crash also had his sentence reduced under a similar scenario.
The bill has been referred to the House Community Safety, Justice, and Reentry Committee.