When two or more persons are included in one prosecution, the court may, at any time before the defendant has gone into his or her defense, direct any defendant to be discharged, that he or she may be a witness for the state. A defendant may also, when there is not sufficient evidence to put him or her on his or her defense, at any time before the evidence is closed, be discharged by the court, for the purpose of giving evidence for a codefendant. The order of discharge is a bar to another prosecution for the same offense.
RCW 10.46.110
Discharging defendant to give evidence.
Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case 77 Wash. 2d 423 - State v. Johnson (1969)
Most recently applied in 77 Wash. 2d 423 - State v. Johnson (December 1969)
2010 c 8 s 1045; Code 1881 s 1092; 1873 p 237 s 253; 1854 p 120 s 117; RRS s 2162.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.