Bryant v. State

660 N.E.2d 290, 1995 WL 758949
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 2, 1996
Docket27S04-9409-CR-865
StatusPublished
Cited by116 cases

This text of 660 N.E.2d 290 (Bryant v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bryant v. State, 660 N.E.2d 290, 1995 WL 758949 (Ind. 1996).

Opinions

ON PETITION TO TRANSFER

SHEPARD, Chief Justice.

We confront several questions of first impression involving Indiana's new drug tax. The State imposed both civil and criminal sanctions on appellant Ross Bryant for his failure to pay the Indiana Controlled Sub[294]*294stance Excise Tax (CSET)1 He appealed the criminal penalty, claiming he was twice punished for the same offense. We hold that the civil and criminal penalties were each jeopardies, and that both cannot be imposed without violating the Double Jeopardy Clause of the United States Constitution.

I. Statement of Facts

In August 1992, Grant County Sheriffs deputies responded to an alarm at Bryant's home. Discovering an open door with fresh pry marks on it, they entered the dwelling and searched it. There was no one in the home, but police found over 250 marijuana plants in the basement, outhouse and garden. Officers then obtained a warrant and completed a more thorough search which uncovered marijuana seeds, dried marijuana and other drug paraphernalia When police questioned Bryant upon his return, he confessed that the marijuana was his and that he was growing it for his own use. Police then arrested Bryant and transported him and the objects seized to the Grant County Jail.

The deputies next contacted the Indiana Department of Revenue to report their findings. The Department dispatched a special agent to the jail to determine the amount of Controlled Substance Excise Tax owed by Bryant.2 The agent weighed the marijuana and assessed a tax of $88,680.83 The agent then met with Bryant and demanded payment. Because Bryant did not immediately pay the CSET, the agent served him with a "Record of Jeopardy Findings and Jeopardy Assessment Notice and Demand" which required payment of the CSET plus a 100 percent penalty for nonpayment of the tax.4 Bryant's total obligation to the State was thus $167,360. The very next day, the Department levied on Bryant's "checking and/or savings accounts, contents of safe deposit boxes, money market accounts, certificates of deposit, ... [and] any other evidence of indebtedness" as payment on this obligation. (R. 456.) Counsel informed us at oral argument that the Department also seized Bryant's home.

The State next charged Bryant with failure to pay the CSET, a class D felony;5 growing and cultivating more than 30 grams of marijuana, a class D felony;6 maintaining a common nuisance, a class D felony;7 and, possession of less than 30 grams of marijuana, a class A misdemeanor.8

In April 1998, Bryant was convicted on all four counts. The court sentenced him to two and a half years in prison on each of the four felony counts and one year for misdemeanor possession. His sentences were to run concurrently, with one year suspended to probation.

[295]*295Bryant subsequently appealed to the Indiana Court of Appeals. After briefing was completed, I transferred the case to this Court pursuant to the authority granted me by Ind. Appellate Rule 4(D).

Bryant raises the following issues on appeal:

1. Whether the State violated the Double Jeopardy Clause by assessing both the CSET's civil and eriminal sanctions against Bryant; 9
2. Whether the trial court erroneously convicted Bryant for failure to pay the CSET based on evidence that he grew and cultivated marijuana;
3. Whether the trial court erred when it admitted evidence obtained in the search of Bryant's home;
4. Whether the trial court erred by admitting evidence of Bryant's prior convictions; and,
5. Whether there was sufficient evidence to convict Bryant of possessing marijuana and maintaining a common nuisance.

We hold the Department's assessment of the CSET against Bryant was a jeopardy. His criminal prosecution for failure to pay the CSET constituted a second jeopardy in violation of his double jeopardy rights under the United States Constitution, as did his criminal prosecutions for growing and possessing marijuana. Accordingly, we vacate his conviction on those counts.10 We affirm his conviction on the remaining count.

II The CSET and Dowble Jeopardy

Bryant claims that because the State assessed the CSET and its 100 percent penalty for nonpayment against him and later convicted him of a felony for nonpayment, it violated his double jeopardy rights under the United States and Indiana Constitutions.11 U.S. Const. AmEnp. V; Inp. Const. art. I, § 14.12

The Double Jeopardy Clause provides that no person shall "be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb." U.S. Const. Amignp. V. This clause is applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. Benton v. Maryland, 395 U.S. 784, 89 S.Ct. 2056, 23 L.Ed.2d 707 (1969). It protects a person from suffering (1) a second prosecution for the same offense after acquittal, (2) a second prosecution for the same offense after conviction and B) multiple punishments for the same offense. North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 28 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969).

Jeopardy is, in its constitutional sense, a technical term which has traditionally applied only to eriminal prosecutions. Evans v. Brown, 109 U.S. 180, 3 S.Ct. 83, 27 L.Ed. 898 (1883). Departing from this historical rule, however, the U.S. Supreme Court has held in recent years that particular forfeitures, civil fines and financial exactions can be "jeopardies." Montana Dep't of Revenue v. Kurth Ranch, - U.S. --, 114 S.Ct. 1937, 128 L.Ed.2d 767 (1994); United States v. Halper, 490 U.S. 435, 109 S.Ct. 1892, 104 L.Ed.2d 487 (1989). Cf. Austin v. United States, 509 U.S. 602, 113 S.Ct. 2801, 125 L.Ed.2d 488 (1998). -In determining whether a jeopardy has occurred, the Court has said that the sanction's label of "criminal" or "civil" is not controlling. Halper, 490 U.S. at 447, 109 S.Ct. at 1901; see also United States v. Haywood, 864 F.Supp. 502, 506 (W.D.N.C.1994) (description of sanction as "civil" does not foreclose possibility it is a jeopardy). Rather, the test is whether the [296]*296civil sanction constitutes a "punishment." Kurth Ranch, -- U.S. at --, 114 S.Ct. at 1946. When the sanction serves the goals of punishment rather than the remedial purposes of compensating the government for its loss, it is a "punishment" and thus a "Jjeopar-dy" within the Double Jeopardy Clause. Id. The sanction's essence as a punishment can be identified "only by assessing the character of the actual sanctions imposed on the individual by the machinery of the state." Halper, 490 U.S. at 447, 109 S.Ct. at 1901.

A. Is the CSET's Civil Sanction a Punishment?

The Supreme Court recently delineated the analysis for determining whether a tax is a punishment in Kurth Ranck - U.S. --, 114 S.Ct. 1987, a case bearing strong resemblance to the one before us.

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Bluebook (online)
660 N.E.2d 290, 1995 WL 758949, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bryant-v-state-ind-1996.