The State of Washington v. Richard Headen Warren

Summary

The Washington Supreme Court affirmed Richard Warren's convictions for first degree child molestation of his eight-year-old stepdaughter and three counts of second degree child rape of his fourteen-year-old stepdaughter, along with a lifetime no-contact sentencing condition barring contact with his wife. Although the court condemned the prosecutor's repeated, flagrant misstatements of the burden of proof and other improper closing arguments, it held the trial judge's prompt and correct curative instruction cured the error in the first trial and that the remaining instances caused no prejudice; it further held, as a matter of first impression, that the no-contact order was a valid crime-related prohibition that survived strict scrutiny because it was reasonably necessary to protect the wife—the victims' mother and a prosecution witness—and her daughters. Justice Sanders dissented, would apply constitutional harmless error to reverse both convictions for misconduct and cumulative error, and would strike the no-contact order as unauthorized and an infringement of the fundamental right to marry; Justice Madsen (joined by Justice C. Johnson) and Chief Justice Alexander concurred in part and dissented in part, each concluding the burden-of-proof misstatement in the trial convicting Warren of molesting S.S. was incurable and required reversal of that conviction while agreeing with affirmance of the remaining conviction and the no-contact order.