Eccles v. State

476 A.2d 1183, 59 Md. App. 554, 1984 Md. App. LEXIS 389
CourtCourt of Special Appeals of Maryland
DecidedJuly 11, 1984
DocketNo. 1294
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 476 A.2d 1183 (Eccles v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Special Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Eccles v. State, 476 A.2d 1183, 59 Md. App. 554, 1984 Md. App. LEXIS 389 (Md. Ct. App. 1984).

Opinion

GETTY, Judge.

At his first trial, Avery Tilton Eccles, appellant herein, was convicted by a jury in the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County of committing a Fourth Degree Sexual Offense. He was acquitted of six other offenses charged in the indictment. The jury advised the court that it could not agree upon a verdict as to the charge of second degree rape. Appellant moved for a mistrial as to that offense and the motion was granted by the trial court.

Two months later, on June 15, 1983, appellant was retried on the second degree rape charge with the State adding charges of attempted second degree rape and assault and battery which were not included in the original indictment. Appellant on retrial was acquitted of second degree rape, but convicted of attempted second degree rape and assault and battery, resulting in a sentence of nine years imprisonment for the attempted rape and a concurrent term of two years for the assault and battery. Sentencing for the prior conviction for fourth degree sexual offense was deferred pending retrial. The sentence imposed for that offense was [557]*557six months imprisonment, to run concurrently with the other sentences. Not surprisingly, this appeal followed.

We hold that retrial under the circumstances of this case does not constitute double jeopardy; that double jeopardy is not applicable to the lesser included offense of attempted second degree rape, because it is inapplicable to the predicate offense; that assault and battery is not a lesser included crime of a fourth degree sexual offense; and that Md. Rule 746 is not violated by the additional charges included on retrial.

Appellant questions:

1. Whether it was reversible error for appellant to be retried for second degree rape after conviction of the lesser included charge of fourth degree sexual offense, thus constituting double jeopardy?
l.a Assuming that double jeopardy bars prosecution for second degree rape, whether it also bars prosecution for the included offense of attempted second degree rape?
1. b Whether a conviction for a fourth degree sexual offense creates a double jeopardy bar for subsequent prosecution of its included offense, assault and battery?
2. Assuming that jeopardy did not attach previously, does Md. Rule 746(a) preclude trial on the charges of attempted second degree rape and assault and battery?

Our first consideration is whether retrial on the charge of second degree rape is precluded by the doctrine of former jeopardy. We conclude that it is not. Appellant relies on Green v. United States, 355 U.S. 184, 78 S.Ct. 221, 2 L.Ed.2d 199 (1957). In Green, the defendant was charged with first degree and second degree murder. The jury convicted on the second degree charge, but was silent as to first degree murder. The conviction was reversed on appeal and on remand the defendant was tried again for first degree murder under the original indictment. He was [558]*558found guilty of first degree murder and was sentenced to death. In an opinion by Black, J., five members of the Court held that the second trial placed the defendant in jeopardy twice for the same offense in violation of the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. The Supreme Court stated that most states in this country have regarded the jury’s verdict, under the circumstances present in Green, as an implicit acquittal of the charge of first degree murder. The Court added a second reason for its decision: when a jury is dismissed without returning any express verdict on a first degree murder charge, and without the consent of the defendant, established principles of former jeopardy apply.

The case before us, however, does not fit precisely the mold of Green. Here, the jury was not silent as to the charge of second degree rape, but the court was told by a note from the jury that it was unable to reach a verdict as to that offense. Additionally, the jury was not discharged without the consent of the accused, but the discharge was at his express direction based upon his motion for mistrial. Under these facts, one cannot reasonably conclude that appellant was “implicitly acquitted” of second degree rape. In Green, the Supreme Court recognized that:

"... jeopardy is not regarded as having come to an end so as to bar a second trial in those cases where ‘unforseeable circumstances ... arise during the first trial making its completion impossible, such as the failure of the jury to agree on a verdict.’ ” (Citing Wade v. Hunter, 336 U.S. 684, 69 S.Ct. 834, 93 L.Ed. 974 (1949))

Although Maryland’s Constitution contains no provision regarding former jeopardy, our cases hold that protection against former jeopardy is rooted in the common law. State v. Barger, 242 Md. 616, 220 A.2d 304 (1966); Robb v. State, 190 Md. 641, 60 A.2d 211 (1948); Hoffman v. State, 20 Md. 425 (1863); Neal v. State, 272 Md. 323, 322 A.2d 887 (1974). Since the Supreme Court’s decision in Benton v. Maryland, 395 U.S. 784, 89 S.Ct. 2056, 23 L.Ed.2d 707 (1969), the prohibition of former jeopardy contained in the [559]*559Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States has been applicable to state court prosecutions under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Under Hoffman, supra, the application of the common law rule applicable in five states, including Maryland, meant that jeopardy did not attach until there had been a final verdict of either acquittal or conviction on a valid indictment. The Supreme Court in Wade v. Hunter, supra, treated mistrial/retrial as a double jeopardy issue. We shall, therefore, consider the attachment of jeopardy on retrial as attaching when the jury is sworn rather than when a verdict is rendered.

In R. Gilbert and C. Moylan, Maryland Criminal Law: Practice and Procedure, Sec. 37, “Double Jeopardy,” the authors point out that the twin purposes of traditional double jeopardy law (preventing endless relitigation of matters previously decided and preventing multiple punishments) are unaffected by the mistrial/retrial principle. Sec. 37.7 of the text states:

“A different situation applies, however, when the mistrial is declared at the request of the defendant. Then, as a general proposition, the defendant will be deemed to have waived any objection to a retrial.”

We hold, therefore, that the State was not precluded from retrying appellant following the grant of his motion for mistrial. Accord, United States v. Perez, 22 U.S. (9 Wheat) 579, 6 L.Ed. 165 (1824), (where jury unable to agree on a verdict was discharged by the Court, defendant was not exempted from being retried); Smith v. State, 299 Md. 158, 472 A.2d 988 (1984).

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Bluebook (online)
476 A.2d 1183, 59 Md. App. 554, 1984 Md. App. LEXIS 389, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/eccles-v-state-mdctspecapp-1984.