McClendon v. State

583 S.W.2d 777, 1979 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1566
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 18, 1979
Docket56993
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 583 S.W.2d 777 (McClendon v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McClendon v. State, 583 S.W.2d 777, 1979 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1566 (Tex. 1979).

Opinions

OPINION

CLINTON, Judge.

The conviction was for murder without malice, and the sentence was assessed at 5 years. The controlling issue presented in this case is governed by the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment.

Appellant was originally indicted in 1971 for the murder of “Mose Dineal” by an indictment numbered “158-786.” Trial was held in October of 1971, conviction ensued, and appeal was brought before this Court. One ground of error presented in that appeal was that the victim’s name was “Mose Dineal Howard,” and that the evidence was not sufficient to show that he was also known as “Mose Dineal” as alleged in the indictment. That contention was rejected because the victim’s wife had testified that the deceased was known by both names. The case was reversed, however, on other grounds. See McClendon v. State, 509 S.W.2d 851 (Tex.Cr.App.1974).

After the mandate for reversal was received from this Court, the case was set for a new trial on April 7, 1975. Both sides announced ready, and the jury was selected. Appellant pleaded to the indictment, and the State began presenting evidence from its witnesses. During the course of the trial the State discovered that it did not have any witness present who could testify that the deceased was known by the name alleged in the indictment. The victim’s wife was in Louisiana, and no effort had been made to bring her to the trial. For that reason the State moved to dismiss, and the trial court granted the motion.

Appellant was reindicted on April 14, 1975, for the same offense. His counsel filed a plea in bar of prosecution and a motion to dismiss on the ground that appel[779]*779late was being subjected to double jeopardy. The motion was denied, and appellant was convicted in a trial before the court.

The Double Jeopardy Clause prohibits “multiple punishments and multiple prosecutions by a single sovereign for a single offense.”1 The policy promoted by the Clause was described in Green v. United States, 355 U.S. 184, 78 S.Ct. 221, 2 L.Ed.2d 199 (1957) as follows:

“The underlying idea, one that is deeply ingrained in at least the Anglo-Saxon 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, as well as enhancing the possibility that even though innocent he may be found guilty.” Id. at 187-188, 78 S.Ct. at 223.

The first question to be decided in each case is when jeopardy “attaches.” Crist v. Bretz, 437 U.S. 28, 98 S.Ct. 2156, 57 L.Ed.2d 24 (1978). More specifically, the question in this case is whether appellant at the time the trial court granted the State’s motion to dismiss had already been placed once in jeopardy, thereby prohibiting further prosecution for that offense.

In Crist v. Bretz, supra, the United States Supreme Court held “the federal rule that jeopardy attaches when the jury is empaneled and sworn is an integral part of the constitutional guarantee against double jeopardy.” The decision mandates that appellant had been placed in jeopardy at the time the State’s motion to dismiss was granted. However, the inquiry does not end at that point. Even though jeopardy attaches, a trial court may be justified in granting a retrial:

“[T]he law has invested Courts of justice with the authority to discharge a jury from giving any verdict, whenever, in their opinion, taking all the circumstances into consideration, there is a manifest necessity for the act, or the ends of public justice would otherwise be defeated.” United States v. Perez, 22 U.S. (9 Wheat.) 579, 580, 6 L.Ed. 165 (1824).

Perez involved a hung jury, and the Court held that a retrial was not prohibited. Other situations constituting “manifest necessity” have included a prejudicial opening statement by defense counsel,2 a “jurisdictional” defect in an indictment,3 and a trial judge’s improper inference to a jury concerning a prosecutor’s conduct.4

In our view the controlling decision is Downum v. United States, 372 U.S. 734, 83 S.Ct. 1033, 10 L.Ed.2d 100 (1962). That case involved a federal prosecution for seven counts of theft from the mail. The trial proceeded as far as completion of jury selection when the prosecution discovered that its key witness on the sixth and seventh counts was not present. At the prosecutor’s request, and over the defendant’s objection, the trial court discharged the jury. Two days later a trial was had on the same charge, and the defendant was convicted. The Court reversed because the defendant had been twice placed in jeopardy-

The opinion specifically refused to say that the absence of a prosecution witness will never justify discontinuance of a trial. Instead the Court held that “[e]ach case must turn on its own facts.” Id. at 737, 83 S.Ct. at 1035. However, the majority opinion quoted from Cornero v. United States, 48 F.2d 69 (9 Cir. 1931), for what it called the “governing principle” in such cases:

“The fact is that, when the district attorney impaneled the jury without first ascertaining whether or not his witnesses were present, he took a chance. While [780]*780their absence might have justified a continuance of the case in view of the fact that they were under bond to appear at that time and place, the question presented here is entirely different from that involved in the exercise of the sound discretion of the trial court in granting a continuance in furtherance of justice. The situation presented is simply one where the district attorney entered upon the trial of the case without sufficient evidence to convict. This does not take the case out of the rule with reference to former jeopardy.” (Emphasis added). Downum, 372 U.S. at 737, 83 S.Ct. at 1035.

The facts of the case before us are materially the same as in Downum. The State went to trial without a necessary witness. The trial court is given discretion in such situations as to the granting of a State’s motion for a continuance. See, e. g., Ashabranner v. State, 557 S.W.2d 774 (Tex.Cr.App.1977). No continuance was requested in this case. In fact, by its own admission the State made no attempt to secure the witness before trial. No “manifest necessity” is presented which would justify subjecting appellant to jeopardy twice. Indeed, in Arizona v. Washington, supra note 2, the Supreme Court reaffirmed that unpreparedness on the part of the prosecution would require “the strictest scrutiny” of the dismissal of a trial. 98 S.Ct. at 832.

The State contends that appellant has the burden of showing that his right against double jeopardy was violated.

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Bluebook (online)
583 S.W.2d 777, 1979 Tex. Crim. App. LEXIS 1566, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcclendon-v-state-texcrimapp-1979.