Jordon v. State

1958 OK CR 68, 327 P.2d 712, 1958 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 187
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedJuly 2, 1958
DocketA-12592
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 1958 OK CR 68 (Jordon v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jordon v. State, 1958 OK CR 68, 327 P.2d 712, 1958 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 187 (Okla. Ct. App. 1958).

Opinion

POWELL, Judge.

Charles Russell Jordon, plaintiff in error, hereinafter referred to as defendant, was charged by information in the district court of Tulsa County with unlawful possession of intoxicating liquor, second offense; was tried before a jury and convicted, but the jury being unable to agree upon the extent of punishment to be assessed, left that to the court, who fixed the penalty at confinement in the county jail for a period of 90 days, and to pay a fine of $500. 1

*715 The evidence was undisputed that county ■officers, acting under authority of a search warrant, on May 8, 1957, searched defendant’s home in Sand Springs, and after forty-five minutes to an hour, found a quantity of Federal tax-paid whiskey hidden in a false box in a clothes closet at the end of a hall.

Defendant asserts error, and seeks reversal, arguing his case under eight propositions.

First, it is said that the court erred in failing to properly instruct the jury on the issues, and in failing to instruct the jury fully and properly upon the law pertaining to second offenses. Counsel say:

“The jury should have been instructed that any evidence of prior or previous convictions should not be considered by the jury as to the guilt or innocence of the defendant of the crime set forth and alleged in the information, but should only be considered by them with reference to fixing his punishment in the event they find and believe beyond a reasonable doubt that he is guilty as a second and subsequent offender.”

As noted by Judge Barefoot for this court in the body of the opinion in Rice v. State, 60 Okl.Cr. 398, 64 P.2d 1240, cited by both the defendant and the State, California (and perhaps a few other states), has a statute that requires that the jury specifically find whether or not the accused has suffered a previous conviction. But Oklahoma has no such statute. Likewise Indiana had no such statute at the time of the Rice opinion, and it was pointed out that in Evans v. State, 150 Ind. 651, 50 N.E. 820, 821, the Indiana court held in substance that a general verdict of “guilty as charged” constitutes a finding against ■the defendant upon the question of prior conviction as charged.

Of course counsel is right in arguing that the only purpose for having the jury consider a previous conviction or convictions of an accused (see 37 O.S.1951 § 12) is for the enhancing of the punishment to be assessed where the jury finds the accused guilty of the crime presently charged. See Johnson v. State, 79 Okl.Cr. 71, 151 P.2d 801, involving 21 O.S.1951 § 51, but where the principle involved is the same.

The Attorney General points out that counsel for the defendant failed to submit the court any instructions except an instruction requested on the question of prima facie evidence, which the court gave, and a request requiring the jury to assess and declare the punishment, which was given as modified. The State argues that the instructions as given by the court, considered together, fully informed the jury of the offense and the various elements thereof, and the penalty fixed by the statutes.

We have carefully read the instructions given by the court, and nowhere find where he advised the jury that should they find the accused guilty of unlawful possession of intoxicating liquors as charged that they should then inquire as to whether or not he had been convicted of one or both of the previous intoxicating' liquor violations alleged, the court to point out that such previous conviction or convictions, if found to have taken place, could not be considered as evidence of accused’s guilt in the case on trial, but that they could consider it only for the purpose of determining the enhancement of punishment to be assessed, if any.

See instructions given in Tilghman v. Burns, 91 Okl.Cr. 359, 219 P.2d 263, there complained of and by this court held not *716 to be erroneous but proper. See also Carr v. State, 91 Okl.Cr. 94, 216 P.2d 333, certiorari denied 340 U.S. 840, 71 S.Ct. 28, 95 L.Ed. 616.

In Rice v. State, 93 Okl.Cr. 86, 225 P.2d 186, this court in paragraph 2 of the syllabus said:

“Where accused was charged with the crime of Second Degree Burglary, Second Offense, it was proper under the habitual criminal act, Tit. 21 O.S. A. § 51, for the court in stating the issues to set out the allegations as to the previous convictions; and it was not only proper but mandatory that the court further in the instructions advise the jury that the previous convictions of the defendant, if the jury should find beyond a reasonable doubt that there were such convictions, should not be considered in determining the guilt or innocence of the defendant, but only in the determination of the punishment in case they should find the defendant guilty. And it was further necessary in the instruction with reference to the extent of the punishment to be inflicted in case of conviction, that reference be made to the question of former convictions, and such instructions being mandatory where information filed under the habitual criminal act, the contention that such tended to give undue prominence to the fact of former convictions is without substantial merit.”

Where the court in stating the charge in his instructions to the jury recites and details two prior convictions, as in this case, and nowhere else in the instructions advises the jury the purpose for their consideration of the prior convictions, whether such statements of prior convictions are to be received as facts or whether they are to determine as a fact, if the accused had actually been theretofore convicted as charged, great weight is lent to the argument that the jury might have been influenced in finding the accused guilty of the principle charge by lack of instructions on the question. We say this although in the present case the undisputed evidence on the part of the State leaves no doubt as to defendant’s guilt. Still, we consider it fundamental that an instruction be given as to the purpose of reception of evidence of prior convictions, and that the failure to so advise the jury cannot be treated as harmless error.

In the case of Vincent v. State, Okl.Cr., 318 P.2d 889, involving 47 O.S.1951 § 93, as amended, Laws 1955 p. 263, § 1, of driving an automobile upon the public highways while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, after former conviction of such an offense, the court in Instruction No. 10 set out in the opinion, permitted the jury where it would fail to find as a fact prior conviction or convictions, to then consider whether the defendant was guilty of the offense of driving a motor vehicle on a public highway while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, first offense. See also 25 Am.Jur. 280 (35), Habitual Criminals; 116 A.L.R. 236, and 139 A.L.R. 697; Shirley v. State, Okl.Cr., 325 P.2d 92; and see also Shirey v. State, Okl.Cr., 321 P.2d 981, at page 988, where it is said:

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Romano v. State
1993 OK CR 8 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1993)
Woodruff v. State
1993 OK CR 7 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1993)
Love v. State
1984 OK CR 40 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1984)
Thomas v. State
1984 OK CR 19 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1984)
Buckaloo v. State
1982 OK CR 138 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1982)
Wilson v. State
1975 OK CR 91 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1975)
State v. Adkins
443 P.2d 170 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1968)
Skaggs v. State
1959 OK CR 61 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma, 1959)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1958 OK CR 68, 327 P.2d 712, 1958 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 187, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jordon-v-state-oklacrimapp-1958.