MONROE, Wash. — The state Court of Appeals has overturned the conviction of a former state prison inmate who attacked a corrections officer in 2012.
Jimi Hamilton was sentenced to life behind bars without the possibility of release after a Snohomish County Superior Court jury convicted him in 2014 of second-degree assault at the corrections facility in Monroe. It was his third-strike under the state's persistent offender law.
The state appellate court concluded that the trial judge was wrong to allow a deputy prosecutor to question a defense witness the way she did.
that prosecutors plan to ask the state Supreme Court to review the appellate court's decision.
Hamilton's lawyer, Snohomish County public defender Jennifer Rancourt, says she's pleased with the court's ruling and that they protected the right to a fair trial.