Defense urges Washington Supreme Court to adopt objective "bad faith" test after jail tape overwritten

SEATTLE — The Washington State Supreme Court heard arguments Thursday in State of Washington v. Rodney Joseph Yeager over whether prosecutors and law enforcement should be held to an objective standard of "bad faith" when potentially exculpatory evidence is destroyed.

Maya Ramakrishnan, counsel for petitioner Rodney Yeager, told the justices that "when the government destroys evidence in its possession before anyone gets a chance to see it, it is almost impossible for the accused to prove the government's subjective motivations for doing so." She asked the court to "clarify that bad faith should be determined objectively based on the information available to the government at the time that the evidence is destroyed" and to reverse the Court of Appeals and dismiss Yeager's convictions with prejudice because a jail video was overwritten despite "multiple objective reasons to know that the evidence had potential exculpatory value."

Ramarkrishnan argued the defense bears…