In re Pers. Restraint of Crace
Annotate this CaseThis case concerned the standard for assessing prejudice in a personal restraint petition alleging ineffective assistance of counsel. Petitioner Hoyt Crace was convicted of attempted second degree assault with a deadly weapon. This was his third strike offense, resulting in a life sentence without the possibility of early release. Petitioner brought this personal restraint petition asserting he received ineffective assistance of counsel when his trial counsel did not request an instruction on the lesser-included offense of unlawful display of a deadly weapon, a nonstrike offense. A divided Court of Appeals applied the analysis for an ineffective assistance of counsel claim set forth in "Strickland v. Washington," (466 U.S. 668 (1984)), concluding that a showing of prejudice under this analysis satisfied the “actual and substantial prejudice” showing required on collateral attack. Without the benefit of the Washington Supreme Court's decisions in "Washington v. Grier," (246 P.3d 1260 (2011)) and "Washington v. Breitung," (267 P.3d 1012 (2011)), the court then granted Petitioner's petition, holding that trial counsel’s performance was deficient and that counsel’s error prejudiced him. Upon review, the Supreme Court reversed the Court of Appeals, finding that the court correctly analyzed prejudice under the Strickland standard, Petitioner could not show prejudice arising from the omitted instruction.
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.