Washington Offender Score: Counting Priors, Wash-Out, and Blake

A Washington offender score is a point total of your criminal history that, paired with the seriousness level of the crime you are being sentenced for, sets the standard sentencing range on the state’s grid. The rules for building that number live in RCW 9.94A.525, part of the Sentencing Reform Act. Each prior conviction is assigned a point value, the values are added together, and the sum lands you in a column on the grid in RCW 9.94A.510. Where that column meets the row for the current offense’s seriousness level is the range of months a judge must impose, unless the law authorizes a departure.¹

A single point can move you into a different cell and add months of confinement, so the details of how each prior is counted matter.

How Prior Convictions Are Counted

The base rule is that every prior adult felony adds at least one point. What changes the weight is the type of crime you are being sentenced for now.

If the current offense is nonviolent, each prior adult felony counts as one point, whether the prior was violent or not.
If the current offense is violent, each prior adult violent felony counts as two points and each prior adult nonviolent felony counts as one.
If the current offense is a serious violent offense, each prior serious violent felony counts as three points, other prior violent felonies count as two, and prior nonviolent felonies still count as one.

The same record can produce different scores depending on the new charge. Two prior assault convictions weigh more against someone facing a new violent charge than against someone facing a property crime.¹

Category-Specific Rules That Override the Defaults

Serious Violent Offenses

When the current conviction is for a serious violent offense such as murder, manslaughter, or first-degree assault, prior serious violent felonies count as three points each. This is the steepest multiplier in the scoring system.¹

Drug Offenses

Drug offenses are handled narrowly. If the current conviction is for manufacturing methamphetamine, each prior adult conviction for the same crime counts as three points. If the current conviction is any drug offense and the history includes a sex offense or serious violent offense, each prior adult drug conviction also counts as three points. For all other drug offenses, the ordinary violent or nonviolent scoring rules apply, and prior felonies typically count as one point each.²

Felony Traffic Offenses

When the current conviction is a felony traffic offense, prior convictions for vehicular homicide or vehicular assault count as two points each. Other prior adult felonies count as one point each, and scorable juvenile convictions count as half a point. Prior serious traffic offenses and prior convictions for boating under the influence add one point each. A prior deferred prosecution for a second or subsequent DUI also adds one point.¹

The Community Custody Point

If the current offense was committed while you were on community custody, community placement, or post-release supervision, one additional point is added to the score. It applies regardless of offense category and is easy to miss when estimating a score before sentencing.²

Out-of-State and Federal Convictions

Convictions from other states and from the federal system count, but only after Washington courts classify them by comparing them to Washington crimes. The analysis has two steps. First, the court asks whether the foreign statute is legally comparable, meaning its elements are substantially similar to a Washington offense. If the foreign statute is broader than any Washington equivalent, the crimes are not legally comparable. Second, even when legal comparability fails, the court can include the conviction if the defendant’s actual conduct would have violated a Washington statute.³

If no clearly comparable Washington offense exists and the crime isn’t one typically subject to exclusive federal jurisdiction, the conviction defaults to a class C felony equivalent for scoring purposes. The prosecution bears the burden of proving both the existence and comparability of every out-of-state conviction it wants counted.¹

Juvenile Adjudications After the 2023 Reform

Washington changed how juvenile records factor into adult sentencing in 2023. Before that, a prior violent juvenile felony adjudication counted as one full point and a nonviolent juvenile adjudication counted as half a point. Engrossed House Bill 1324, effective July 23, 2023, eliminated most juvenile adjudications from the offender score. Under the current version of RCW 9.94A.525(1)(b), juvenile adjudications may not be included unless they are for murder in the first or second degree or a class A felony sex offense.²

The Washington Supreme Court held in State v. Boyce that the change applies prospectively, covering offenses committed on or after July 23, 2023. Defendants sentenced for crimes committed before that date are scored under the law in effect at the time of the offense.⁴

Multiple Current Offenses and Same Criminal Conduct

When you are sentenced for more than one crime at the same hearing, each conviction is normally scored as if the others were priors. That can inflate a score quickly. RCW 9.94A.589(1)(a) provides a narrow exception: if the court finds that current offenses amount to the “same criminal conduct,” they collapse into a single point.⁵

Three criteria must all be met. The crimes must involve the same criminal intent, be committed at the same time and place, and involve the same victim. Miss any one and each count is scored separately. A common example is a break-in that also includes theft during the same entry, where the burglary and the theft share intent, time, place, and victim.⁵

Washington’s burglary anti-merger statute, RCW 9A.52.050, allows separate prosecution and punishment for another crime committed during a burglary. The Washington Court of Appeals has held that this anti-merger rule applies only to current convictions, not to prior convictions being counted in the offender score. When scoring prior burglary-related convictions, the court must still run the same criminal conduct analysis.⁶

When Older Convictions Wash Out

Not every prior stays on the score forever. Washington law removes older convictions automatically if you stay crime-free in the community for a set number of years:

Class A felonies and sex offenses never wash out.
Class B felonies that are not sex offenses wash out after ten consecutive years in the community with no new conviction.
Class C felonies that are not sex offenses wash out after five consecutive years in the community with no new conviction.

The clock starts on the later of the sentencing date or the last date of release from confinement, including full-time residential treatment. A new conviction before the required period expires resets the clock for all eligible priors. Wash outs happen automatically and require no petition; the conviction simply stops counting once the time has passed.¹

Vacated Convictions and Blake

A vacated conviction is treated differently from one that has washed out. When a court vacates a conviction under RCW 9.94A.640, it is excluded from criminal history for calculating any future sentence, and the person is released from the penalties and disabilities of the offense.⁷

The Washington Supreme Court’s 2021 decision in State v. Blake struck down the state’s simple drug possession statute, former RCW 69.50.4013, as unconstitutional. Convictions under that statute from 1971 through 2021 qualify to be vacated. If a Blake-era simple possession conviction is inflating your offender score, vacating it removes those points, which can lower a future sentencing range and can also open the door to resentencing on past cases where the conviction pushed the score higher.⁸

How the Score Maps to a Sentence

Once the score is calculated, the court plots it on the grid in RCW 9.94A.510. The horizontal axis is the offender score, running from 0 through “9 or more.” The vertical axis is offense seriousness, ranked I to XVI. The cell where the two intersect gives a minimum and maximum number of months of confinement.⁹

Scores above nine all land in the same column. The grid doesn’t distinguish between a 10 and a 15. The judge must sentence within the cell’s range unless the law authorizes an exceptional sentence.¹⁰

Exceptional Sentences Above or Below the Range

The grid is the default, not an absolute ceiling or floor. Under RCW 9.94A.535, a court may impose an exceptional sentence outside the standard range if it finds substantial and compelling reasons and sets them out in written findings. An exceptional sentence is determinate, meaning a fixed term rather than a range.¹¹

For a sentence below the standard range, the judge must find mitigating circumstances by a preponderance of the evidence. The statute lists examples such as the victim being a willing participant or aggressor, the defendant acting under duress, and significantly impaired mental capacity that was not caused by voluntary intoxication. The list is illustrative, not exhaustive.¹¹

For a sentence above the standard range, the rules are stricter. Aggravating factors other than the fact of a prior conviction must generally be found by a jury beyond a reasonable doubt. Listed aggravators include deliberate cruelty, a particularly vulnerable victim, abuse of a position of trust, and offenses committed to further gang activity. A judge and the prosecution may also agree on an upward departure by stipulation if the court finds it serves the interests of justice.¹¹

Challenging an Incorrect Score

Offender score errors are common. A prior may be misclassified, an out-of-state offense may be treated as comparable when it isn’t, a washed-out conviction may still appear, or a juvenile adjudication that no longer qualifies under the 2023 reform may still be counted. Because the prosecution carries the burden of proving the existence and comparability of every prior it wants counted, defense counsel can challenge any entry on the criminal history statement.³

Raise objections at the sentencing hearing, before the judge enters the judgment and sentence. Review the prosecutor’s statement of criminal history line by line, and flag any conviction that appears misclassified, improperly scored, or eligible for a wash out or vacation. If an error isn’t caught at sentencing, relief may still be available through a personal restraint petition or direct appeal, but those routes are harder and slower. A single extra point can push you into a higher cell with months of added confinement, which is why verifying the score is one of the most consequential steps in the sentencing process.

1
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 9.94A.525 – Offender Score
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Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 9.94A.525 – Offender Score
3
Washington Courts. In the Matter of the Personal Restraint of Steven L. Smith
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Washington Courts. State v. Boyce
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Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 9.94A.589 – Consecutive or Concurrent Sentences
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Washington Courts. State v. Williams
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Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 9.94A.640 – Vacating Records
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Washington Courts. Blake Refund Bureau
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Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 9.94A.510 – Sentencing Grid
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Washington State Office of Financial Management. Sentencing Guidelines and Offender Score
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Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 9.94A.535 – Exceptional Sentences