Do you have a Pierce County UPCS conviction?

On February 25, 2021, in State v. Blake, the Washington Supreme Court held that RCW 69.50.4013(1), the Unlawful Possession of a Controlled Substance (UPCS) statute, is unconstitutional. As such, you may be eligible to have your conviction(s) vacated and/or be resentenced on your case(s). Additionally, if you are currently serving a term of community custody due to a UPCS conviction, you may be entitled to have your term of community custody stricken.  Moreover, if you are currently serving a prison sentence for a non-UPCS conviction, but have a prior UPCS conviction that scored against you in your offender score, you may be entitled to resentencing with a corrected offender score calculation.  

The Pierce County Department of Assigned Counsel can represent the following three groups of individuals with regards to obtaining Blake relief:

1. Individuals who are currently in-custody who are entitled to resentencing under Blake (meaning the individual is currently in-custody serving a prison sentence AND one of their current convictions is for UPCS, Attempted UPCS or they were sentenced with an offender score that included prior UPCS convictions or attempted UPCS convictions).
2. Individuals who are currently on community custody supervision from a UPCS conviction or Attempted UPCS conviction.
3. Individuals who were convicted of UPCS, Attempted UPCS, or Solicitation to UPCS who are seeking to vacate their Blake-affected conviction.

Please note that due to the significant number of individuals affected by the Blake decision, we are currently prioritizing those individuals who are currently in-custody and eligible to be re-sentenced.  After that group is completed, we will work on individuals in the community who are eligible to have their Blake-affected convictions vacated.

If you fall into any of the three categories listed above and are interested in having the Department of Assigned Counsel move to vacate your conviction(s) and address other potential relief, please fill out and submit the information below so that we may assist you. You can also email us at [email protected] or write to us at Department of Assigned Counsel, Attention: Blake Resentencing, 949 Market Street, Suite 334, Tacoma, WA 98402. 

The Blake decision impacts thousands of cases, so we appreciate your patience as we look through all the cases and respond to everyone’s requests.