Burke v. State

811 S.W.2d 209, 1991 Tex. App. LEXIS 1842, 1991 WL 89633
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 30, 1991
DocketNo. 01-90-01043-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 811 S.W.2d 209 (Burke v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Burke v. State, 811 S.W.2d 209, 1991 Tex. App. LEXIS 1842, 1991 WL 89633 (Tex. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

OPINION

DUNN, Justice.

This is an appeal from a denial of pretrial habeas corpus relief. Appellant’s application alleged that he was illegally detained because his prosecution for the offenses for which he was charged was barred by the double jeopardy clause of the U.S. Constitution. We affirm.

On June 24, 1990, Officer C.A. Byrd of the Houston Police Department observed appellant’s car run a stop sign in the 2700 block of Whitney, in Houston. Officer Byrd signalled appellant to pull over, and as she approached his car, she noticed that the paper license plate, displayed in the back window, was expired. Officer Byrd, while ticketing appellant for running the stop sign and for operating a motor vehicle with an expired paper license plate, noticed that appellant’s eyes were glazed, that his breath smelled of alcohol, and that he “sway[ed] a little.” Appellant admitted he had two drinks. After appellant performed field sobriety tests poorly, Officer Byrd arrested him for driving while intoxicated.

[210]*210The citations for running a stop sign and operating a vehicle with an expired license plate were filed in Houston municipal court. The driving while intoxicated charge was filed in County Criminal Court at Law Number 5. Appellant pled guilty to the two charges in Houston municipal court on July 30, 1990. Although the record does not contain the municipal court proceedings, both parties agree that appellant paid a fine of $105 for running the stop sign and a fine of $52.50 for operating a vehicle with an expired license plate. The driving while intoxicated charge remained pending in the county criminal court.

Appellant applied for writ of habeas corpus in the county court arguing that prosecution for DWI would “require relitigation of the factual issues already resolved by the Municipal Court conviction, and will also require proof of conduct that constitutes the offenses for which the Defendant was previously convicted.” On November 9, 1990, the trial court considered appellant’s application, heard testimony from Officer Byrd and appellant, and denied relief.

In one point of error, appellant complains that the trial court committed reversible error in denying his application for writ of habeas corpus. Appellant maintains that Grady v. Corbin, — U.S. -, 110 S.Ct. 2084, 109 L.Ed.2d 548 (1990), applies the fifth amendment of the federal constitution to “bar a subsequent prosecution if, to establish an essential element of an offense charged in that prosecution, the government will prove conduct for which the defendant has already been prosecuted.” 110 S.Ct. at 2087; U.S. Const. amend. V. We disagree.

In Grady, Mr. Corbin was involved in a traffic accident in which the passenger of the other car was seriously injured and the other driver died. Corbin received traffic tickets for: (1) the misdemeanor of driving while intoxicated, and (2) failing to keep to the right of the median. Corbin pled guilty to the two tickets in the town justice court and received a $350 fine, a $10 surcharge, and a six-month license revocation. The presiding judge was not informed of the fatality or of a pending homicide investigation. The assistant district attorney was similarly unaware of the other proceedings. Subsequently, a grand jury indicted Corbin for reckless manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide, and third-degree reckless assault. The state of New York identified three reckless or negligent acts on which it would rely to prove the homicide and assault charges:

(1) operating a motor vehicle on a public highway in an intoxicated condition;
(2) failing to keep to the right of the median; and
(3) driving approximately 45 to 50 miles-per-hour in heavy rain at a speed which was excessive for the road conditions and weather.

Corbin moved to dismiss the indictment on federal constitutional double jeopardy grounds. The trial court denied the motion, the appellate division affirmed the judgment, but the New York Court of Appeals reversed on grounds that prosecution of the pending indictment following the traffic tickets violated the double jeopardy clause of the federal constitution.

Writing for a divided Supreme Court, Justice Brennan noted that in determining whether successive prosecutions are barred by double jeopardy, a reviewing court must first apply the test announced in Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 52 S.Ct. 180, 76 L.Ed. 306 (1932). The Blockburger case requires a determination of whether each offense requires proof of an additional fact that the other does not. 284 U.S. at 304, 52 S.Ct. at 182. “If the application of that test reveals that the offenses have identical statutory elements or that one is a lesser included offense of the other, then the inquiry must cease, and the subsequent prosecution is barred.” Grady, 110 S.Ct. at 2090. However, if the subsequent prosecution survives the Blockburger test, the reviewing court must then determine whether the government will prove conduct that constitutes an offense for which the accused has already been prosecuted in order to establish an essential element of the offense charged. See Grady, 110 S.Ct. at 2092 (citing Brown v. Ohio, 432 U.S. 161, 166-67, 97 S.Ct. 2221, [211]*2112225-26, 53 L.Ed.2d 187 (1977)). As the Court held:

the Double Jeopardy Clause bars any subsequent prosecution in which the government, to establish an essential element of an offense charged in that prosecution, will prove conduct that constitutes an offense for which the defendant has already been prosecuted. This is not an “actual evidence” or “same evidence” test. The critical inquiry is what conduct the State will prove, not the evidence the State will use to prove that conduct.

110 S.Ct. at 2093; Illinois v. Vitale, 447 U.S. 410, 416, 100 S.Ct. 2260, 2265, 65 L.Ed.2d 228 (1980); Brown, 432 U.S. at 166-67, 97 S.Ct. at 2225-26; Mills v. State, 802 S.W.2d 400, 406 (Tex.App.—Houston [1st Dist.] 1991, pet. ref’d) (applying Block-burger and Vitale, and holding that a defendant’s conviction for violating a municipal ordinance against ‘running a kennel without a license’ did not bar a subsequent prosecution for ‘cruelty to animals’ under Tex.Penal Code Ann. § 42.11).

Applying Blockburger and its progeny, we ask whether each of the three offenses with which appellant was charged requires proof of an additional fact which the others do not. 110 S.Ct. at 2093. To do so, we examine the elements of the three charged offenses.

The elements of driving while intoxicated are: (1) a person (2) drives or operates (3) a motor vehicle (4) in a public place (5) while intoxicated, has committed an offense. Solis v. State, 787 S.W.2d 388, 390 (Tex.Crim.App.1990); Tex.Rev.Civ.Stat.Ann. art. 6701Ɩ-1(b) (Vernon Supp.1991).

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Bluebook (online)
811 S.W.2d 209, 1991 Tex. App. LEXIS 1842, 1991 WL 89633, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/burke-v-state-texapp-1991.