Home Table of Contents

WPIC 2.28 Continuing Criminal Impulse—Definition

11 WAPRAC WPIC 2.28Washington Practice Series TMWashington Pattern Jury Instructions--Criminal

11 Wash. Prac., Pattern Jury Instr. Crim. WPIC 2.28 (5th Ed)
Washington Practice Series TM
Washington Pattern Jury Instructions--Criminal
January 2024 Update
Washington State Supreme Court Committee on Jury Instructions
Part I. General Instructions
WPIC CHAPTER 2. Definitions
WPIC 2.28 Continuing Criminal Impulse—Definition
A continuing criminal impulse means committing a series of acts as part of a single and continuing criminal plan or intent that continued unbroken throughout the commission of the acts.
NOTE ON USE
Use this instruction when there is an issue as to whether the defendant committed a series of acts as part of a single and continuing criminal plan. Use special verdict form WPIC 190.22 (Special Verdict Form—Continuing Criminal Impulse) with this instruction.
COMMENT
This instruction is new for this edition and arises from State v. Reeder, 181 Wn.App. 897, 330 P.3d 6 (2014), a securities fraud case where the statute of limitations was at issue:
When successive takings are the result of a single and continuing criminal impulse and the defendant commits the takings as part of a single criminal plan, the takings may constitute a single theft. In such a case, the defendant does not complete the crime until the criminal impulse terminates. “When a continuing criminal impulse exists, the statute of limitations does not begin to run until the crime is completed.”
State v. Reeder, 181 Wn.App. at 924.
Whether the criminal impulse continues into the statute of limitations period is an issue of fact that must be determined by the jury. State v. Reeder, 181 Wn.App at 926.
[Current as of December 2019.]
End of Document