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RCW 9A.28.020

Criminal attempt.

Known as the Washington Criminal Code

The act spans §§ 9A.04.010 to 9A.98.020 (401 sections).

Applied in 249 court decisions — leading case 90 Wash. 2d 443 - State v. Workman (1978)

Most recently applied in State of Washington v. James Ray House, Jr. (August 2024)

2001 2nd sp.s. c 12 s 354; 1994 c 271 s 101; 1981 c 203 s 3; 1975 1st ex.s. c 260 s 9A.28.020.

How often courts cite this section

1977198019902000201020202024160
citing decisions per year

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.

(1) A person is guilty of an attempt to commit a crime if, with intent to commit a specific crime, he or she does any act which is a substantial step toward the commission of that crime.

(2) If the conduct in which a person engages otherwise constitutes an attempt to commit a crime, it is no defense to a prosecution of such attempt that the crime charged to have been attempted was, under the attendant circumstances, factually or legally impossible of commission.

(3) An attempt to commit a crime is a:

(a) Class A felony when the crime attempted is murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree, arson in the first degree, child molestation in the first degree, indecent liberties by forcible compulsion, rape in the first degree, rape in the second degree, rape of a child in the first degree, or rape of a child in the second degree;

(b) Class B felony when the crime attempted is a class A felony other than an offense listed in (a) of this subsection;

(c) Class C felony when the crime attempted is a class B felony;

(d) Gross misdemeanor when the crime attempted is a class C felony;

(e) Misdemeanor when the crime attempted is a gross misdemeanor or misdemeanor.

Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.