WPIC 45.02 Rape—No Corroboration Necessary
11 WAPRAC WPIC 45.02Washington Practice Series TMWashington Pattern Jury Instructions--Criminal
11 Wash. Prac., Pattern Jury Instr. Crim. WPIC 45.02 (5th Ed)
Washington Practice Series TM
Washington Pattern Jury Instructions--Criminal
January 2024 Update
Part VII. Sex Crimes
WPIC CHAPTER 45. Sex Offenses—Definitions
WPIC 45.02 Rape—No Corroboration Necessary
No pattern instruction is proposed.
COMMENT
RCW 9A.44.020(1) states that it is not necessary for the testimony of an alleged rape victim to be corroborated. That statute made no change in the law. Since 1913, the law of Washington has followed the common law rule that no corroboration is necessary. State v. Thomas, 52 Wn.2d 255, 324 P.2d 821 (1958).
The matter of corroboration is really a matter of sufficiency of the evidence. An instruction on this subject would be a negative instruction. The proving or disproving of such a charge is a factual problem, not a legal problem. Whether a jury can or should accept the uncorroborated testimony of the prosecuting witness or the uncorroborated testimony of the defendant is best left to argument of counsel.
[Current as of December 2019.]
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