Chapter 13

• Jurisdiction: United States

Chapter 13 Sentencing Reform

Sentencing Reform Act

Before July 1, 1984, Washington had an indeterminate sentencing law that was described as unjust, ineffective, and dishonest. Defendants with similar criminal records who had committed similar crimes were receiving widely disparate sentences ranging from probation with no time in jail to a statutory maximum term in prison. This wide range of possible sentences was also a product of differing sentencing philosophies among the Washington State Superior Court judges.

Although the judge would pronounce the sentence to be imposed, the judge had no control over the actual time the defendant would serve in prison. The Parole Board would make that decision. Parole Board decisions were not public, and therefore no public accountability or predictability existed. For instance, a judge could sentence a robber to ten years in prison, but the robber could serve as little as a month before being paroled.

Since the mid-1970s, the King County Prosecutor's Office worked to reform Washington's sentencing law. In 1981, Norm Maleng was serving as the Chairman of the Corrections Committee of the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys when the Sentencing Reform Act was enacted. This was the most comprehensive overhaul of sentencing law in the United States, and after its adoption, the federal government adopted a similar sentencing plan.

Chief Criminal Deputy Dave Boerner was instrumental in both crafting the Sentencing Reform Act (SRA) and leading the way to its adoption and implementation. Dave literally wrote the book on sentencing reform: Sentencing in Washington: A Legal Analysis of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1981.⁷² He would later go on to serve as the Chairman of the Washington State's Sentencing Guidelines Commission.

Dave Boerner made a real difference in so many lives, and he was a driving force for reform of the criminal justice system. Dave was a consummate leader of the Criminal Division. I tried in my feeble way to emulate him (to no avail). Dave taught us the importance of a prosecutor's role as a minister of justice in the criminal justice system. Dave displayed the characteristics of a minister of justice and passed those on to those of us fortunate enough to work for him. Later, after he left the office and was working at Seattle University Law School, he was an expert witness on ethics, wrote on the subject, and, along with Professor John Strait, taught an annual ethics continuing legal education...