Reckless burning—Defense.
Known as the Washington Criminal Code
The act spans §§ 9A.04.010 to 9A.98.020 (401 sections).
Applied in 7 court decisions — leading case 98 Wash. 2d 484 - State v. McCullum (1983)
Most recently applied in 164 Wash. App. 629 - State v. Evans (November 2011)
1975 1st ex.s. c 260 s 9A.48.060.
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.
In any prosecution for the crime of reckless burning in the first or second degrees, it shall be a defense if the defendant establishes by a preponderance of the evidence that:
(a) No person other than the defendant had a possessory, or pecuniary interest in the damaged or endangered property, or if other persons had such an interest, all of them consented to the defendant's conduct; and
(b) The defendant's sole intent was to destroy or damage the property for a lawful purpose.
Official source: Washington State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Washington statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.