During deliberations, the jury may be allowed to separate unless good cause is shown, on the record, for sequestration of the jury. Unless the members of a deliberating jury are allowed to separate, they must be kept together in a room provided for them, or some other convenient place under the charge of one or more officers, until they agree upon their verdict, or are discharged by the court. The officer shall, to the best of his or her ability, keep the jury separate from other persons. The officer shall not allow any communication to be made to them, nor make any himself or herself, unless by order of the court, except to ask them if they have agreed upon their verdict, and the officer shall not, before the verdict is rendered, communicate to any person the state of their deliberations or the verdict agreed on.
RCW 4.44.300
Care of jury while deliberating.
Applied in 25 court decisions — leading case 1 Wash. App. 785 - State v. Whalon (1970)
Most recently applied in State Of Washington, V. Joseph Henry Hall (April 2022)
2003 c 406 s 17; Code 1881 s 229; 1877 p 48 s 233; 1869 p 57 s 233; 1854 p 166 s 194; RRS s 349.
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.