In 1995, Ernest Benson, then age 20, plead guilty to two counts of Aggravated First Degree Murder. He was sentenced to a mandatory life sentence without parole (‘LWOP’). In 2021, our Washington Supreme Court held LWOP sentences were unconstitutional for offenders between 18-20. Personal Restraint of Monschke, 197 Wn.2d 305, 329 (2021). The court later affirmed that determinate sentences could be imposed. State v. Canter, 3 Wn.3d 198 (2024). Mr. Benson’s original trial court resentenced him to two concurrent 40-year sentences.
In March 2025, the Department of Corrections (‘DOC’) released Mr. Benson from prison, believing he was entitled to 33.33% earned release time (‘ERT’) commonly known as ‘time off for good behavior’. However, DOC later determined that Mr. Benson was only eligible for ERT of 15%, as Aggravated First-Degree Murder was a ‘serious violent offense’. DOC apprehended Mr. Benson, and he was returned to prison. He immediately started an appeal, utilizing what is known as a personal restraint petition.
The relevant statute for designating a ‘serious violent offense’ is RCW 9.94A.729(3)(b), under which eligibility for ERT is 15 percent. However, RCW 9.94A.030(46) designates only First-Degree Murder as a serious violent offense, not Aggravated First Degree Murder (even though, logically, ‘aggravated’ seems more serious). Mr. Benson took a strict statutory approach, that if a crime is not specifically designated as ‘serious’, it cannot be so characterized. A valiant attempt to avoid going back to prison.
Division II held that a person is guilty of aggravated first-degree murder by committing first degree murder with an aggravating factor, i.e. the offense “is a type of first-degree murder.” Benson, at 5. Mr. Benson was therefore only eligible for 15% ERT and not “under unlawful restraint” (i.e. correctly returned to prison) because any other conclusion “contradicts the legislature’s hierarchy of offenses”.
The Court’s statutory analysis is correct; holding First Degree Murder ‘serious’ and Aggravated First Degree Murder not serious is indeed “absurd”. Benson at 6. However, Mr. Benson’s matter seems challengeable as a matter of due process. If the reasoning of Monschke is followed: shouldn’t a 20 year old who spent 30 years in prison get some slack through the concept of lenity, and not have to return to prison once released?