WPIC 93.01 Driving While License Revoked—First Degree—Definition

Use this instruction if it will help the jury understand the charged offense or if it is necessary to define this particular offense for the jury. See the Comment to WPIC 4.24 (Definition of the Crime—Form).

Use this instruction with WPIC 93.02 (Driving While License Revoked—First Degree—Elements). If applicable, use this instruction with WPIC 93.02.10 (Driving While License Revoked—First Degree—Special Verdict—Enhanced Penalties).

RCW 46.20.342(1)(a).

In 2014, the bracketed language “revoked in the first degree” was removed from previous versions of this instruction in accordance with State v. Smith, 155 Wn.2d 496, 120 P.3d 559 (2005). In Smith, a first degree driving while license suspended case, the jury was instructed that, in order to convict the defendant, it must find that “the defendant's privilege to drive was suspended or revoked in the first degree.” The Washington Supreme Court reversed the conviction, finding that the State must prove that the defendant drove a vehicle while under an order of revocation as an habitual traffic offender, not merely that he was “driving while license suspended or revoked in the first degree” without further explanation for the underlying suspension. State v. Smith, 155 Wn.2d at 504.