State v. Jones

Darrell Jones contends the jury instructions in his trial for unlawful possession of a firearm relieved the State of its burden of proving two elements of the offense. The State does not dispute that the instructions omitted one of the elements, but contends any error was harmless. In supplemental briefs requested by this court, the parties disagree as to whether Neder v. United States1 effectively supplants Washington cases prohibiting harmless error analysis when an error relieves the State of its burden of proof.

*42Because we conclude that the failure to instruct the jury on an element of the…