Commonwealth v. Caufman

611 A.2d 1300, 417 Pa. Super. 131, 1992 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2148
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 14, 1992
Docket1957
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 611 A.2d 1300 (Commonwealth v. Caufman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Commonwealth v. Caufman, 611 A.2d 1300, 417 Pa. Super. 131, 1992 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2148 (Pa. Ct. App. 1992).

Opinions

MONTEMURO, Judge:

This is an appeal from an order denying appellant’s pretrial motion requesting that her case be dismissed on the grounds that the present prosecution violates the Double Jeopardy clause of the United States Constitution. The sole issue raised on review is whether appellant’s prosecution for homicide by vehicle is barred by double jeopardy due to her previous plea of guilty to a summary traffic citation.

The relevant facts in this controversy are succinctly stated by the trial court and are as follows:

On October 26, 1990, Mary Caufmann [sic] was operating a motor vehicle on State Street when she struck Ruth Smith who was crossing the street. Caufmann [sic] remained at the scene and talked with Police Officer Steven Goodich, who conducted the initial investigation. She indicated to the officer that she had been drinking and he noted that she had an odor of alcohol about her, but was without additional signs of intoxication. A subsequent [133]*133blood test indicated a blood alcohol level below the legal limit.
At the scene, Officer Goodich measured the skid marks, and talked with an eye witness, and an Erie police officer, Sergeant Turner. The victim, Ruth Smith, was transported to the hospital. On October 30th, Officer Goodich spoke with the district attorney’s office and caused a traffic citation to be issued to Ms. Caufmann [sic] alleging that she failed to drive at a safe speed. On November 2nd, Ruth Smith died while in the hospital and on November 14th, after receiving notice of the citation, Ms. Caufmann [sic] pled guilty to the traffic violation and paid the designated fine. The same day, Officer Goodich filed a criminal complaint charging Ms. Caufmann [sic] with Homicide by Motor vehicle.

(T.C.O. at 1-2).

Appellant asserts that double jeopardy bars any attempt to convict her for homicide by vehicle due to her previous conviction for driving at an unsafe speed. This issue was recently decided in the United States Supreme Court case Grady v. Corbin, 495 U.S. 508, 110 S.Ct. 2084, 109 L.Ed.2d 548 (1990). In Grady, the Court held that the Double Jeopardy Clause of the United States Constitution bars a subsequent prosecution if, in order to establish an essential element of the current offense charged, the government will prove conduct that constitutes an offense for which the defendant has already been prosecuted. Since appellant contends that Grady is controlling in the instant case, a careful review of the facts in Grady is necessary.

On October 3, 1987, defendant Corbin drove his automobile across a double yellow line, colliding head on with two oncoming vehicles. New York Assistant District Attorney (ADA) Thomas Dolan was called to the scene where he learned that two passengers in the second vehicle struck were seriously injured, and later that day learned that one of the passengers eventually died as a result of those injuries. That same evening the defendant was served two traffic tickets directing him to appear at the LaGrange [134]*134Town Justice Court on the charges of driving while intoxicated, and failing to keep right of the median.

Three days later ADA Frank Chase began gathering evidence for a homicide charge. ADA Chase never informed either the Town Justice Court, or the ADA covering that court about the death of the victim or the pending homicide investigation. On October 27, 1987, Corbin plead guilty to the summary offenses; however, sentencing was deferred since the district attorney failed to present a sentencing recommendation. On November 17, 1987 a sentencing hearing took place, wherein ADA Sauter who did not review the file, and was unaware of the fatality and pending investigation, recommended a minimum sentence. The presiding judge sentenced Corbin to a $350 fine, a $10 surcharge, and a six month license revocation.

On January 19, 1988, a grand jury investigating the October 3, 1987 accident indicted Corbin on the charges of reckless manslaughter, second-degree vehicular manslaughter, and criminally negligent homicide, third-degree reckless assault, and driving while intoxicated. The bill of particulars filed by the prosecution indicated that it would prove its case by showing that Corbin drove while in an intoxicated condition, failed to keep right of the median, and drove too fast for conditions. Corbin asserted that the guilty plea before the town justice operated as a bar from prosecution for charges arising from the same conduct, to which the United States Supreme Court agreed.

In analyzing the double jeopardy claim, the Court first noted that the subsequent prosecution was not barred under the traditional Blockburger test, “because each offense ‘require[d] proof of a fact which the other [did] not’ ”. Grady supra at 515, 110 S.Ct. at 2090 quoting Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 52 S.Ct. 180, 76 L.Ed. 306 (1932). The Court then held that Blockburger was merely the first step in the analysis. While the Blockburger test protects an individual from multiple prosecutions and hence multiple punishments for the same offense, it does not fully address all of the harm caused by successive prosecutions. [135]*135The Court in Grady noted that the double jeopardy clause implicates greater concerns beyond the possibility of subjecting a person to an enhanced sentence:

‘The underlying idea, one that is deeply ingrained in at least the Anglo-American system of jurisprudence, is that the State with all its resources and power should not be allowed to make repeated attempts to convict an individual for an alleged offense, thereby subjecting him to embarrassment, expense and ordeal and compelling him to live in a continuing state of anxiety and insecurity.’ Green v. United States, 355 U.S. 184 [78 S.Ct. 221, 2 L.Ed.2d 199] (1957)

Grady supra at 518, 110 S.Ct. at 2091. Moreover, the government should not be allowed to rehearse its case. Thus, after applying the Blockburger test a second inquiry is necessary to determine whether the defendant was already prosecuted for conduct that is a necessary element of the present charge.

Applying this second test, the court held that double jeopardy clause barred this subsequent prosecution because the bill of particulars expressly stated that the state would rely on the conduct of crossing a medium, and driving while intoxicated which was the very conduct for which Corbin had been convicted.

This court has had occasion to apply Grady v. Corbin in a recent en banc decision, Commonwealth v. Labette, 397 Pa.Super. 179, 579 A.2d 1315 (1990) allocatur granted 527 Pa. 623, 592 A.2d 43 (1991). In Labette, this Court was presented with the issue of whether a guilty plea to the summary offenses of driving a vehicle at an unsafe speed, and reckless driving, precluded the Commonwealth from maintaining a subsequent prosecution for driving under the influence. After determining that the Blockburger test was inapplicable, this court overruled Commonwealth v. Evers, 381 Pa.Super. 568,

Related

Commonwealth v. Moran
675 A.2d 1269 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1996)
Commonwealth v. Caufman
662 A.2d 1050 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1995)
Commonwealth v. Exley
17 Pa. D. & C.4th 285 (Crawford County Court of Common Pleas, 1992)
Commonwealth v. Caufman
611 A.2d 1300 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1992)

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Bluebook (online)
611 A.2d 1300, 417 Pa. Super. 131, 1992 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2148, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/commonwealth-v-caufman-pasuperct-1992.