People v. White

212 N.W.2d 222, 390 Mich. 245, 1973 Mich. LEXIS 141
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 20, 1973
Docket13 March Term 1973, Docket No. 54,277
StatusPublished
Cited by234 cases

This text of 212 N.W.2d 222 (People v. White) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People v. White, 212 N.W.2d 222, 390 Mich. 245, 1973 Mich. LEXIS 141 (Mich. 1973).

Opinions

Swainson, J.

Complainant and defendant first met at the Windsor Race Track in Ontario, Canada. The defendant asked where complainant was going after the races and she stated that she and her two girl friends were planning on going to the Twenty Grand Club in Detroit, Michigan. Fifteen minutes after the complainant arrived in the club, defendant came over to the table where she and her two friends were seated. He spent the rest of the evening with them and at the conclusion of the show at about 2:30 a.m., the women agreed to accompany the defendant to a party. The "party” was at an after-hours drinking establishment. The women left between 3:30 and 4 a.m. and drove to the City of Inkster where complainant lived. The defendant followed them. The complainant decided to drive to her girl friend’s house. The defendant continued to follow her automobile and parked his vehicle in back of that of the complainant. The complainant got out of the vehicle, and after walking halfway across the street, she was stopped by the defendant. He told her that he wanted her to go with him to Detroit and when she refused, they began to wrestle. The defendant struck her with the butt of a gun and injured her ear. He forced complainant into the back seat of the car and the [251]*251car was driven away. Two other men were in the automobile besides the defendant. During the return ride, and while within the City of Detroit, the complainant was forced to engage in sexual intercourse with the defendant.

Defendant was arraigned in Recorder’s Court for the City of Detroit on February 21, 1968, for the offenses of rape and felonious assault. On February 28, 1968, he was arraigned in Inkster, Michigan, on the charge of kidnapping. On March 4, 1968, the preliminary examination was held in Detroit Recorder’s Court. The preliminary examination on the charge of kidnapping was held on March 6, 1968. Defendant was bound over to the Recorder’s Court on the charges of rape1 and felonious assault.2 He was bound over to the Wayne County Circuit Court on the charge of kidnapping.3

On March 21, 1969, the defendant was convicted by a jury in Wayne County Circuit Court of kidnapping. A scheduled trial on March 25, 1969 in Recorder’s Court was adjourned. Thereafter, defendant was sentenced on the kidnapping charge to 5 to 15 years. No appeal was taken from this conviction.

On October 7, 1969, trial was commenced in Detroit Recorder’s Court on the charges of rape and felonious assault. He was found guilty by a jury op both charges on October 9, 1969. He was sentenced on October 21, 1969, to 8 to 30 years for rape and 3 years, 9 months to 4 years for felonious assault.

The defendant appealed on the rape and felonious assault charges. The Court of Appeals reversed. The majority of the Court held that we [252]*252should follow the same transaction test in determining double jeopardy and that since the crimes of rape, felonious assault and kidnapping were all part of the same transaction, the defendant should only have been tried ohce and thus, that his conviction should be reversed. 41 Mich App 370; 200 NW2d 326 (1972). We granted leave to appeal. 388 Mich 780. The prosecutor raises two issues on appeal.

(1) Whether the Court of Appeáls erred in reversing defendant’s conviction based on the use of the same transaction test?

(2) Whether the Court of Appeals erred in holding that statutes creating and defining the state judicial jurisdictions over criminal matters are procedural rules to be subordinated to the same transaction doctrine?

I.

The Court of Appeals found that appellant’s second trial violated the constitutional protection against double jeopardy under what is known as the same transaction test. The leading authority for such an interpretation of double jeopardy is the concurring opinion of Justice Brennan in Ashe v Swenson, 397 US 436, 448; 90 S Ct 1189, 1197; 25 L Ed 2d 469, 478 (1970). Therein, Mr. Justice Brennan persuasively argues that the same transaction test best fulfills the Fifth Amendment guarantee that no person shall "be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb”,4 which is now enforceable against the states under [253]*253Benton v Maryland, 395 US 784; 89 S Ct 2056; 23 L Ed 2d 707 (1969).

"The Double Jeopardy Clause is a guarantee 'that the State with all its resources and power [shall] 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, 187 [78 S Ct 221; 2 L Ed 2d 199; 61 ALR2d 1119] (1957). This guarantee is expressed as a prohibition against multiple prosecutions for the 'same offence.’ Although the phrase 'same offence’ appeared in most of the early common-law articulations of the double-jeopardy principle, questions of its precise meaning rarely arose prior to the 18th century, and by the time the Bill of Rights was adopted it had not been authoritatively defined.
"When the common law did finally attempt a definition, in The King v. Vandercomb, 2 Leach 708, 720, 168 Eng. Rep. 455, 461 (Crown 1796), it adopted the 'same evidence’ test, which provided little protection from multiple prosecution:
" '[U]nless the first indictment were such as the prisoner might have been convicted upon by proof of the facts contained in the second indictment, an acquittal on the first indictment can be no bar to the second.’
The 'same evidence’ test of 'same offence’ was soon followed by a majority of American jurisdictions, but its deficiencies are obvious. It does not enforce but virtually annuls the constitutional guarantee. For example, where a single criminal episode involves several victims, under the 'same evidence’ test a separate prosecution may be brought as to each. Eg., State v Hoag, 21 N. J. 496, 122 A. 2d 628 (1956), aff'd, 356 U.S. 464 [78 S Ct 829; 2 L Ed 2d 913] (1958). The 'same evidence’ test permits multiple prosecutions where a single transaction is divisible into chronologically discrete crimes. Eg. Johnson v Commonwealth, 201 Ky. 314, 256 S. W. 388 (1923) (each of 75 poker hands a separate 'offense’). Even a single criminal act may lead to multiple prosecutions if it is viewed from the perspectives of different [254]*254statutes. E.g., State v Elder, 65 Ind. 282 (1879). Given the tendency of modern criminal legislation to divide the phases of a criminal transaction into numerous separate crimes, the opportunities for multiple prosecutions for an essentially unitary criminal episode are frightening. And given our tradition of virtually unreviewable prosecutorial discretion concerning the initiation and scope of a criminal prosecution, the potentialities for abuse inherent in the 'same evidence’ test are simply intolerable.
"The 'same evidence’ test is not constitutionally required. It was first expounded after the adoption of the Fifth Amendment, and, as shown in Abbate v United States, supra, [359 US 187; 79 S Ct 666; 3 L Ed 2d 729 (1959)] at 197-198 and n.

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

Related

People of Michigan v. Marcus Darnell Ford
Michigan Court of Appeals, 2019
People of Michigan v. Homer Robert Clay
Michigan Court of Appeals, 2017
People of Michigan v. Christopher Allan Oros
Michigan Court of Appeals, 2017
People of Michigan v. Ryan Lowell Bailey
Michigan Court of Appeals, 2015
People of Michigan v. Sean Patrick Donovan
Michigan Court of Appeals, 2014
People v. Rodriguez
650 N.W.2d 96 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 2002)
People v. Fisher
559 N.W.2d 318 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1997)
People v. Bullock
485 N.W.2d 866 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1992)
People v. Flowers
465 N.W.2d 43 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1990)
People v. Greenberg
439 N.W.2d 336 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1989)
People v. Dawson
427 N.W.2d 886 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1988)
People v. Sturgis
397 N.W.2d 783 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1986)
People v. Jackson
394 N.W.2d 480 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1986)
People v. Hooper
394 N.W.2d 27 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1986)
Cozzaglio v. State
709 S.W.2d 70 (Supreme Court of Arkansas, 1986)
People v. Emery
389 N.W.2d 472 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1986)
People v. Smith
360 N.W.2d 841 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1984)
People v. Vargo
362 N.W.2d 840 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1984)
People v. Stewart
361 N.W.2d 16 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1984)
People v. Shelton
360 N.W.2d 234 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 1984)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
212 N.W.2d 222, 390 Mich. 245, 1973 Mich. LEXIS 141, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-v-white-mich-1973.