Facts:  Respondent Mansour Heidari was convicted of first degree child rape, second degree child molestation, and third degree child molestation in the Superior Court for King County.  After exhausting his direct appeals, Heidari filed a personal restraint petition in the Washington Court of Appeals.  The Washington Court of Appeals granted the petition and vacated Heidari’s convictions, holding that the evidence supporting the convictions was insufficient as a matter of law because there had not been any actual sexual contact between Heidari and the victim.  The Washington Court of Appeals also denied the state of Washington’s motion to direct the entry of judgment on the lesser included offense of attempted second degree child molestation.  The state of Washington appealed this ruling to the Supreme Court of Washington.

Question(s):  Did the Washington Court of Appeals lack the power to direct the entry of judgment on the lesser included offense of second degree child molestation?

Conclusion:  Justice Alexander’s opinion for the Court affirmed the Washington Court of Appeals, concluding that judgment could not be directed on the lesser included offense of second degree child molestation because the jury had not been instructed on that charge.  In particular, the Court found that to hold otherwise would be harmful to defendants because it would deny them the opportunity to defend against lesser included charges.

Docket No. 85653-2 (from Court of Appeals Division I Case No. 63040-7)

Petitioner: State of Washington

(Counsel: Ann Marie Summers)

Respondent: Mansour Heidari

(Counsel: David Bruce Koch)

Briefs:

Argument: Tuesday, November 8, 2011 2:30pm

[Source: TVW, http://tvw.org]

Decided: Thursday, April 19th, 2012

Prevailing Party: Mansour Heidari (Respondent)

Vote: 9-0

Citation: Pending

Court: Madsen2 Court (2011)

Madsen

Johnson

Alexander
(Majority)

Chambers

Owens

Fairhurst

Johnson
(Partial)

Stephens

Wiggins

Opinion

Partial Concurrence