State v. W.R., Jr.
Washington Supreme Court
336 P.3d 1134 (2014)
- Written by Sean Carroll, JD
Facts
The State of Washington (plaintiff) charged W.R. (defendant) with rape in the second degree. The state alleged that W.R. had raped J.F. while J.F. was visiting her aunt. Both W.R. and J.F. were minors. W.R. denied having sexual intercourse with J.F. until shortly before trial. At that point, W.R. asserted that the sexual intercourse was consensual. During the bench trial, W.R. testified that J.F. had a crush on him and that they had previously engaged in sexual intercourse. Another witness also testified that J.F. had a crush on W.R. However, J.F. testified that she did not consent to either instance of sexual intercourse with W.R. The trial court weighed the witnesses’ credibility and determined that W.R. had failed to prove the defense of consent by a preponderance of the evidence. The trial court found W.R. guilty of rape in the second degree. W.R. appealed, and the court of appeals affirmed. W.R. then appealed to the Washington Supreme Court.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Stephens, J.)
Dissent (Owens, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 804,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.