Official Text and Analysis.

Establishes a work group to adopt model guidelines and law enforcement training for evidence-based best practices to maximize the reliability of eyewitness testimony.

Specifies that the eyewitness evidence work group must be administered by the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. (2) Removes the requirement for specialized statewide training on eyewitness evidence to be made available; instead, requires the eyewitness evidence work group, in consultation with the University of Washington Tacoma and the Criminal Justice Training Commission, to design a pilot project for implementing and evaluating the effectiveness of the training curriculum developed by the work group. (3) Removes the requirement for local law enforcement agencies to adopt protocols for the collection of eyewitness evidence. Provides that the model guidelines developed by the eyewitness evidence work group must be based on specified best practices. (4) Removes the requirement for the eyewitness evidence work group to reconvene every three years. Expires the work group on December 31, 2022. (5) Specifies that the work group on the reliability of informant testimony must be administered by the University of Washington School of Law, in consultation with the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys and Washington Innocence Project. Specifies that the work group, in consultation with the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, Washington Defender Association, and Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, must make available the specialized training on informant testimony required in the underlying bill. Expires the work group on December 31, 2022. (6) Provides that a prosecuting attorney or defendant may request a jury instruction exercising caution in evaluating the credibility of an informant (rather than requiring a judge to provide a jury instruction exercising caution in evaluating the testimony of an informant). Removes requirements relating to the Washington Pattern Instructions Committee's development of a jury instruction, and instead specifies that the jury instruction in the striking amendment should be used unless otherwise determined by the court. Replaces the jury instruction included in the underlying bill with the following: "The testimony of an informant, given on behalf of the [State] [City] [County] in exchange for a legal advantage or other benefit, should be subjected to careful examination in the light of other evidence in the case, and should be acted upon with great caution. You, the jury, must weigh the credibility of his or her testimony. You should not find the defendant guilty upon such testimony alone unless, after carefully considering the testimony, you are satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt of its truth." (7) Adds cross-references to the definition of "informant" in related sections of the underlying bill. Reorganizes provisions into different sections and subsections, and renames headers and creates new headers for new sections. (8) Codifies the underlying bill into a new chapter in Title 10 RCW.