First, it stems from and is dependent upon *8 a series of cases decided at a time when the state statutory scheme permitted guilty pleas in capital cases and required only that a jury be subsequently impaneled to determine the degree of murder and the death penalty issue. RCW 9 A. On July 17, 1979, the trial judge *11 declined to accept Martin's guilty plea, stating that the prosecutor's right to request the death penalty prevented the proffered admission of guilt. If it is susceptible to more than one construction, it should be given that construction which will carry out its objective.

The State's analysis rests on an unsubstantiated assumption that the legislature must have intended to repeal CrR 4.2(a). This action, like the language of the statute itself, is consistent with a legislative understanding that such a plea is not appropriate in a case where the death penalty may be imposed.The majority suggests no legislative purpose which would be served by a law which permits a defendant to escape the death penalty by pleading guilty.

And yet the majority has, by ignoring significant language in that legislation, construed it to have an effect which is invalid. THE STATE OF WASHINGTON, Respondent,

This view is not supported by the legislative history of the act, cited by amicus and pursued in the specially concurring opinion.

WASHINGTON, Petitioner, v. Neil Martin CHRISMAN.

Free at last! However, an appropriate analysis of Washington's death penalty statute, RCW 10.94, cannot accommodate such a special sentencing provision.

The statute contains two phrases. State of Washington v. Martin . The State bases its argument on implied repeal of judicial court rules and a misreading of RCW 10.01.060.I therefore cannot agree with the State. Implied repeals are not favored, however. The provision, an amendment dating from 1951, expands the methods of assessing guilt to include trial by a judge except in capital cases:This court has interpreted the statute as amended to prevent the defendant upon whom the death penalty might be imposed from waiving jury trial in favor of trial before a court. This argument is without merit for two reasons. The State could not assert a right to jury trial. No. Provision of such a loophole would frustrate the entire purpose of the statute, which is to demand the imposition of this most severe punishment in certain cases and to permit it in no others. Acts of the legislature express the majority will, attested to in the manner prescribed by the constitution. The United States Supreme Court has more than once reminded us of the indisputable fact that "death is different," and that this difference must impact on the court's decision making, requiring the utmost solicitousness for the defendant's position. Blackstone speaks of the trial by jury as the Englishman's "grand bulwark of his liberties" placed "between the liberties of the people and the prerogative of the Crown." United States v. Jackson, supra at 581. However, unlike provisions in some other states, Washington rules and statutes nowhere suggest that prosecutorial approval is required before a defendant may plead guilty.Thus, the criminal defendant in Washington has a right to plead guilty unhampered by the prosecutor's opinions or desires. 2A C. Sands, *31 Sutherland's Statutes and Statutory Construction § 45.12 (4th ed. Jenkins v. State, 85 Wn.2d 883, 886, [3] In oral argument, the State relied on the second clause of RCW 10.01.060 which expands the methods of assessing guilt to include trial by a judge except in capital cases:This court has long interpreted the clause as preventing a defendant upon whom the death penalty might be imposed from waiving a jury trial in favor of a trial before a court. "In answer to the arraignment, the defendant may move to set aside the indictment or information, or he may demur or plead to it, and is entitled to one day after arraignment in which to answer thereto if he demand it. 32.045; and these are the mitigating circumstances which the jury may consider under RCW 10.94.020(4). Auto Drivers Local 882 v. Department of Retirement Sys., 92 Wn.2d 415, 421, *9 In the final analysis since, on a plea of guilty to first degree murder, a trial judge cannot "reconvene the same trial jury" there is simply no statutory means provided by which the death penalty can be imposed.The trial court should have informed Martin that under existing law the maximum penalty on a plea of guilty to first degree murder is life imprisonment with a possibility of parole. That statute provided that "if the defendant plead guilty to a charge of murder, a jury shall *15 be impaneled to ... determine the degree of murder and the punishment therefor." E.g., State v. Baker, 78 Wn.2d 327, 334, [6] Clearly the legislature did not anticipate the possibility that an accused might plead guilty to a charge of first degree murder. See State v. Funicello, 60 N.J. 60, Few cases have considered a criminal defendant's right to plead guilty to the crime with which he is charged. It is true that the legislature in these sections has not expressly declared that all capital cases shall be tried to a jury, but the conclusion is inescapable if the language is given its fair import.The prosecutor is authorized to request the death penalty in any case where a defendant is charged with murder in the first degree. The court was asked to so rule on the legal consequences of the guilty plea. [2] The State next contends that insofar as CrR 4.2(a) may appear to be inconsistent with RCW 10.94 (the Washington death penalty act) the criminal rule governing guilty pleas is impliedly overruled by the statutory death penalty scheme. It should be considered as a whole.

1973). Frost, for petitioner.Norm Maleng, Prosecuting Attorney, Gregory P. Canova, Senior Deputy, and Dennis R. Nollette, Deputy, for respondent.In this case we are concerned with a defendant's right to plead guilty to a charge of premeditated murder in the first degree (hereinafter first degree murder) and the consequences of such a plea.Petitioner, Donald Martin, asserts a right to plead guilty to a charge of first degree murder and thus avoid the possible imposition of the death penalty resulting from a jury trial.

Without question the plea was dependent upon a correct judicial interpretation of the statutory scheme. 32.040(3) and RCW 9.95.115.

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