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Criminal Law—Statutory Definition Of Knowledge—State V. Shipp, 93 Wn. 2d 510, 610 P.2d 1322 (1980), Robert C. Macaulay

Washington Law Review

In State v. Shipp the Washington Supreme Court interpreted the meaning of "knowledge" as used in Washington's criminal culpability statute. Defendants in three different trials were convicted of crimes requiring proof of knowledge. In each case the trial court gave jury instructions directing the jury "to find that a person has knowledge if it finds that 'he has information which would lead a reasonable person in the same situation to believe that [the relevant] facts exist.'" The issue in Shipp was whether these instructions, which were taken almost verbatim from the statute, were correct. This note argues that, contrary to …