Orcutt v. State

1931 OK CR 412, 3 P.2d 912, 52 Okla. Crim. 217, 1931 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 422
CourtCourt of Criminal Appeals of Oklahoma
DecidedSeptember 12, 1931
DocketNo. A-7979.
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 1931 OK CR 412 (Orcutt 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
Orcutt v. State, 1931 OK CR 412, 3 P.2d 912, 52 Okla. Crim. 217, 1931 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 422 (Okla. Ct. App. 1931).

Opinion

CHAPPELL, J.

Plaintiff in error, hereinafter called defendant, was convicted in the district court of Tulsa county of the crime of robbery with firearms, and his punishment fixed by the jury at imprisonment in the state penitentiary for ten years.

The only question presented in this appeal is that of former jeopardy.

*218 The facts so far as the question of former jeopardy is concerned are that this defendant, together with Lester Garvin and Peewee Wilson, forced W. K. Cottrell and W. E. Sturdevant to drive Cottrell’s automobile out southeast of the city of Tulsa a few miles and there compelled them at the point of a gun to get out of the car, and while this defendant held a gun upon them, one of his codefend-ants robbed Cottrell of $40 in money, a gold watch, and diamond ring, and the other one robbed Sturdevant of $82 in money.

The defendant was first tried for the robbery of Cot-trell and was acquitted, and he now contends that that acquittal was equivalent to an acquittal for having robbed Sturdevant.

If the defendant by reason of his acquittal upon the charge of robbery of Cottrell cannot be further prosecuted in this case for the robbery of Sturdevant, then all the contentions alleged in the brief of the plaintiff in error are well taken. However, if the acquittal in the case of Cottrell was not a bar to the subsequent prosecution in the case of Sturdevant, then all the contentions alleged in the brief of plaintiff in error must fall, as they are all based primarily on this proposition.

Defendant in his brief cites Jackson v. State, 11 Okla. Cr. 523, 148 Pac. 1058. In that case defendant had been prosecuted for the possession of four barrels of whisky and acquitted. Subsequently, he was prosecuted for the transportation of the same whisky. The court there held that, possession being necessary in both cases, they constituted the same offense. But, suppose defendant had been charged with transporting the whisky and selling some of it to John Jones; in that case it could not be contended that the offenses were the same. So that *219 Jackson v. State, supra, does not support tbe contention of defendant.

On the same day, the state filed two informations against the defendant, one charging him with the robbery of W. K. Cottrell, and the other charging him with the robbery of W. E. Sturdevant. The record contains the two informations — one being that in the case at bar, wherein the defendant was charged with the robbery of W. E. Sturdevant; the other information charging the robbery of W. K. Cottrell, and upon which defendant was acquitted.

Defendant contends that the robbery of Cottrell and Sturdevant, occurring practically at the same time and at the same place, were not separate robberies, but one act, and that therefore his plea of former jeopardy should have been sustained.

This question involves the construction of section 21, of article 2 of the Constitution, which reads as follows:

“No person shall be compelled to give evidence which will tend to incriminate him, except as in this Constitution specifically provided; nor shall any person, after having been once acquitted by a jury, be again put in jeopardy of life or liberty for that of which he has been acquitted. Nor shall any person be twice put in jeopardy of life or liberty for the same offense.”

It also involves the construction of section 2626, C. O. S. 1921, which reads as folloAvs:

“When the defendant shall have been convicted or acquitted upon an indictment or information, the conviction or acquittal is a bar to another indictment or information for the offense charged in the former, or for an attempt to commit the same, or for an offense necessarily included therein, of which he might have been convicted under that indictment or information.”

*220 Robbery is defined by section 1784, C. O. S. 1921, to be:

“A wrongful taking of personal property in the possession of another from his person or immediate presence and against his will, accomplished by means of force or fear.”

In Harris v. State, 17 Okla. Cr. 69, 175 Pac. 627, 632, this court said:

“The burden is upon the defendant to show that his plea of former acquittal and former jeopardy is well founded, both in law and fact.”

See, also, Harmon v. State, 43 Okla. Cr. 251, 278 Pac. 354; State v. Tennison, 44 Okla. Cr. 409, 281 Pac. 313.

The first question to be determined is, Was the robbery of Cottrell the same crime as the robbery of Sturde-vant, occurring as it did, under the circumstances set forth in the record?

Wharton’s Criminal Law, vol. 1 (11th Ed.) p. 508, states the rule:

“On a plea of former acquittal or conviction the accused must show that he was acquitted or convicted of the same accusation against him in the former trial; not of an entirely different offense growing out of the same state of facts or transaction.
“The same act may constitute two or more offenses which are distinct from each other. In such cases the accused may be separately prosecuted and punished for each, and a conviction or acquittal or prosecution for one will not constitute an acquittal and a bar for the other. Thus where two or more are assaulted, robbed or their goods stolen, or are shot or murdered by one and the same act at the same time, conviction or acquittal on an in- *221 dietment for offense against the one will he no bar to a trial on an indictment charging the offense against the other.”

8 Ruling Case Law, p. 143, § 128, states the rule thus:

“The prohibition of the ancient principle of the common law and the constitutional provisions declaratory thereof, against a second jeopardy, apply only to a second prosecution for the identical act and crime both in law and fact for which the first prosecution was instituted.
“When a single transaction constitutes two or more offenses, wherein the lesser offense is not necessarily involved in the greater, and when the facts necessary to convict on the second prosecution would not necessarily have convicted on the first, then the first prosecution will not be a bar to the second.
“A putting in jeopardy for one act is no bar to a prosecution for a separate and distinct act, merely because they are so closely connected in point of time that it is impossible to separate the evidence relating to them on the trial for the one of them first had. Consequently a plea of former jeopardy will not be sustained where it appears that in one transaction two distinct crimes were committed.”

In 16 Corpus Juris, p. 263, § 443, the rule is stated:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1931 OK CR 412, 3 P.2d 912, 52 Okla. Crim. 217, 1931 Okla. Crim. App. LEXIS 422, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/orcutt-v-state-oklacrimapp-1931.