Selvester v. United States

170 U.S. 262, 18 S. Ct. 580, 42 L. Ed. 1029, 1898 U.S. LEXIS 1543

• Court: Supreme Court of the United States
• Decided: April 25, 1898
• Docket: 397
• Status: Published

Opinions

Mr. Justice White,

after stating the case, delivered the opinion of the court.

The assignments of error challenge the sufficiency of the verdict to support the judgment which was entered thereon. The claim is that as the verdict expressed the agreement of the jury as to the guilt of the accused as to the distinct crimes charged, in three of the- counts, and stated a disagreement as to the distinct crime covered by the fourth count, the. verdict was not responsive to the whole indictment, and was void. That is to say, the proposition is that the verdict of guilty as to the separate offences covered by the three first counts was in legal intendment no verdict at all, because the jury stated their inability to agree as to the fourth count, covering a different offence from those embraced in the other counts.

Deduced to its ultimate analysis,, the claim amounts to this: That an indictment,.although consisting of several counts, each for a distinct offence, is in law an indivisible unit, must be treated as an entirety by the jury in making up their verdict, and such verdict in order to be valid must finally pass upon and dispose of all the accusations contained in the indictment. In effect it is claimed that where an indictment ' consists of several counts, repeated trials must be had until there is an agreement either for acquittal or conviction as to each and every count contained in the indictment. It needs but a mere statement of the proposition to demonstrate that it in reason rests necessarily on the premise just stated. That this is its essential postulate is conclusively shown by the authorities which are cited to sustain it. They are : Hurley v. State, 6 Ohio, 399 ; Wilson v. State, 20 Ohio, 26, 31; Williams v. State, 6 Nebraska, 334; Oasey v. State, 20 Nebraska, 138, and Muller v. Jewell, 66 California, 216.

In the Hurley case, upon the assumption that the same rules, as respects the sufficiency of verdicts, governed in criminal as in civil cases, the Supreme Court of Ohio held that a trial court acted properly in refusing to enter a verdict which found the defendant not guilty on one count of an indictment, and stated their inability to agree as to other counts; and further held that no error was committed in discharging the jury and again putting the accused upon trial.

In the Wilson case, the opinion in the Hurley case was criticised, but it was held to be “ prudent,” where in one indictment distinct offences were charged in separate counts, especially when these offences might subject the accused to different degrees of punishment, to require the jury in their finding, in the absence of a general verdict, to affirm or negative each charge: In consequence of. this view the court reversed, because the verdict had found the defendant guilty as charged in one series of counts in the indictment, but had omitted any reference whatever to his guilt or innocence as to certain other offences charged in.another series of counts. The rule thus applied was declared to be necessary because of a possible doubt as to whether a defendant might not be subject to further prosecution for an offence not passed upon by a jury in a verdict under an indictment consisting of several counts.

The Nebraska cases followed the ruling in the Wilson case, mainly, however,' because the Ohio decision was regarded as a construction of a statute, existing in Ohio, and which had been adopted into the Nebraska Code.

The California case relied upon may be' dismissed from view, as it related to a verdict in a civil cause.

In passing, we note that the doctrine that a verdict in a ■criminal case must respond to every count in . an indictment in order to warrant a judgment thereon, as stated in the Ohio ■cases just referred to, seems to be no longer maintained in that State. Jackson v. State, 39 Ohio St. 37. In the Jackson case the issues presented were as follows : The trial court had refused to receive a verdict' on an indictment containing several counts for distinct offences, which found the defendant “guilty as charged in the first count of the indictment.” The jury thereupon after further deliberation' returned a general verdict of guilty. The Supreme Court of the State of Ohio, in considering an exception taken to' the entry of the general verdict, said: “The objection is‘untenable. The prisoner might have been sentenced under the first' verdict, for the count on which it was based was sufficient. (Whar. Crim. Pl. and Pr. sec. 740.) But the proper course was to endeavor to obtain a verdict responding to both counts, and •that course was pursued.”

Whatever may be the present rule in Ohio, it is manifest from the foregoing brief analysis of the cases cited by the plaintiff in.error! to sustain the contentions upon which reliance is placed, that they rest upon the theory that, even ■although the offences charged in the several counts of an indictment be distinct and separate crimes, such a solidarity is created between them by charging them in several counts of one indictment as to render void any verdict which does not specifically and affirmatively respond to each and every count. But this proposition, whatever may be the support found for it in early cases, is not sound in reason, and is negatived by the decisions of this' court and the opinion of text writers, that is to say, .it is refuted by the'conclusive weight of authority.

The erroneous theory as to. the indivisible union presumed to arise from charging distinct offences in separate counts of one indictment, applied in the cases referred to and in some other early American cases, took its origin from the case of Rex v. Hayes, (1727) 2 Ld. Raym. 1518. (See observations in the opinion in State v. Hill, 30 Wisconsin, 421.) But it has been held in England that that case' did not justify the yiew which had been- sometimes taken of it, Latham v. The Queen, 5 B. & S. 635, and that it was a mistake to apply to the several counts of distinct offences in one indictment the rule-which obtaihs as to verdicts in civil cases. In the course of his opinion, in the case just cited, Mr. Justice Blackburn said (p.,642):

“ Then it is said we are concluded by authority. There is. only one case which has the least bearing on the question, namely, Rex v. Hayes, 2 Ld. Raym. 1518. In that case the indictment contained three counts, and a special verdict was returned, finding the prisoners guilty on two of them, but said nothing on the third, and the question was whether judgment could be given against them as guilty on the whole. The court held, that as the'jury had virtually found, and the facts showed,' the prisoners not guilty on the third count, the record established that they were guilty on two counts, and not on the third. The. counsel who argued that case for the. defendants referred to-authorities to show that where a verdict finds but ■ a portion of aii issue, or only one of several •issues, it is bad and'ground, for a venire de novo; -but the court did not determine that point at all — there was no occasion to decide that no verdict, being given on one count vitiates a; verdict on another count which is good: In civil.. cases there:is only one process against the defendant, and. therefore if a nevv trial is granted on one part of the case it is granted on the whole.-' But in-' a criminal case, where each count is as it were a separate indictment, onq count not having been disposed -of no . more affects the proceedings with. ■error than if there’ were two indictments. In O'Connell v. The Queen, 11 Cl. & F. 155, which has been referred ■ to, Parke, B., says pp. 296-7: ‘So in respect of those counts on which the jury have acted incorrectly, by finding persons guilty of two offences, (on a count charging only one,) if the Crown did not obviate the objection, by entering a nolle prosequi as to one of the offences, Rex v. Hempstead, R. & R. C. C. 341, and so in effect'removing that from the indictment, the court ought to have granted a venire de novo on those counts, in order to have a proper finding; and then upon the good counts it should, have proceeded to .pronounce the', proper judgment. In short, I should have said that the defendants should on the face of the record be put precisely 'in the same .condition as if the several counts had formed the subject of several indictments.’ That is exactly wh’at I .'say • here. Each count is in fact' and theory a separate indictment, and no authority has been produced to show that we ought to defeat the ends of justice by'such a'technical' error as this.”. ■

And the .rule in England thus clearly announced is generally applied in the American cases. Whar. Crim. Pl. and Pr. § 740; 1 Bishop New Crim. Proc. § 1011. Indeed, the.doctfine, as settled by repeated adjudications of this court, is in .entire ■ harmony with the English rule as. annoutíced in the Latham case. In Claassen's case, 142 U. S. 140, it was held that where; a -jury found an accused guilty on some counts of an indict-, ment, and the trial judge' imposed a general sentence, which-did-not’exceed the punishment authorized-by law'to be-inflicted for a single offence, it was immaterial whether some of the counts upon which conviction was had were bad, as the/ judgment was valid if only one of the counts was legally sufficient. In Dealy v. United States, 152 U. S. 539, it was held that the reception of a verdict on an indictment contain-, ing .numerous counts was valid, although the verdict which set out an affirmative finding as to all but one count was silent as to that count. The discharge of th^ j(ury under such circumstances was conceded to have be.eh proper, and it was ob-served (p. 542) as. to the count upon which the verdict was silent, that such silence “ was doubtless equivalent to a verdict of not guilty as to that count.” In Ballew v. United States, 160 U. S. 187, it was found that a judgment; entered upon a general verdict of guilty on an indictment consisting of. several counts was erroneous as respects one of the counts1 alone', and for this cause the judgment was not reversed in toto, but was’ only set aside a¡s to the count in regard t.o which.error had been committed, and the case was remanded to the trial court for sentence on the count as to which no error was ■ found' to have arisen, and for further proceedings as to the other count. In Putnam v. United States, 162 U. S. 687, where distinct sentences of concurrent imprisonment had been imposed under separate counts of an indictment, reversible error having been found to exist as to one of the counts only, the judgment was affirmed as to the count where there was no error and was reversed as to the other, and the cause was remanded for further proceedings with .respect' to the count as to which error had been committed.

These rulings are absolutely in conflict with the proposition upon which the plaintiff in error relies, and conclusively demonstrate its unsoundness. True, it is claimed that there is a distinction between the doctrine -announced in these cases and the pi’oposition here relied on. Thus, it is urged that in the Claassen case there was no question presented of a failure of the verdict to affirmatively respond to all the counts in the indictment, but that the sole issue was, where the verdict did respond to all- the counts and thereafter some of the counts were found to be bad, whether the verdict and sentence, which did not exceed' the punishment imposed by law for the offence specified in the good counts, would be held to relate alone to the good counts, and,he, therefore, not subject to reversal. Whilst it is true that the claimed distinction between the facts in the Claassen case and those in this exists, it is one, however, wffiich in no way distinguishes the two cases, in so far as the legal principle is concerned by which they are to be determined. This is at once made apparent by considering that if the charging of distinct offences in several counts in one indictment so unified the various offences that action on .all of them was necessary to action on any one, the conclusion reached in the Claassen case was erroneous. The necessary effect of the'decision in that case was to establish that, although distinct offences were charged in separate counts in one indictment, they nevertheless retained their separate character to such an extent that error or failure as to one had no essential influence upon the other. It is also asserted that the ruling in Dealy’s case does not control the. question here raised. There, on an indictment charging distinct of-fences in several counts, the jury returned a verdict of guilty as to certain of the counts and were silent as to the others. The maintaining of this verdict, it is urged, did not import the right of a jury to agree to convict as to some counts and disagree as to others, since the court in that case imputed the verdict to all the counts, and, therefore, treated it as affirmatively responsive to all. That is, the argument by which alone it is possible to distinguish, this case from the Dealy case must rest on the extreme and unsound assertion that in that case, although the record plainly disclosed that the jury had found only as to certain counts, nevertheless the court, as a matter of fact, held that the jury had found as to all. The statement in the opinion in the Dealy case to which we have already referred and cited, that the silence of the verdict as to a particular count “ was equivalent to a verdict of not guilty as to that count,” when properly understood, does not lend itself to the construction which the argument seeks to place upon it. The contention arises from a failure to observe the difference between discharging a jury on mere silence on their part as to the guilt or innocence of an accused as to a particular count, and doing so only after a formal disagreement, and its entry of record. Doubtless, where a jury, although convicting as to some, are silent as to other counts in an indictment, and are discharged without the consent of the accused, as was the fact in the Dealy case, the effect of such discharge is “equivalent to acquittal,” because, as the record affords no adequate legal cause for the. discharge of the jury, any further attempt to prosecute would amount to a second jeopardy, as to the charge with reference to which the jury has been silent.. But such obviously is not the' case, where a jury have not been silent as to a particular count, but where, on the contrary, a disagreement is formally entered on the record. The effect of such entry justifies the discharge of the jury, and therefore a.- subsequent prosecution for the offence as to which the jury has disagreed and on account of which it has been regularly discharged, would not constitute second jeopardy. The error in the conviction may additionally be shown by. presupposing that each crime charged in several counts of one indictment, instead of being included .in one, had been prosecuted by way of separate indictments as to each. Under these conditions, if a charge contained in any one of the indictments had been submitted to the jury, and the. court had after such submis-sion, ahd without verdict, undertaken of its own motion, over ' objection, to discharge the jury, it is elementary that such discharge would be equivalent to an acquittal of the particular charge for which the accused was tried, since it would bar a. subsequent prosecution." But if, on the other hand, after the case had. been submitted to the jury, they reported their in-' ability to agree, and the court made record of - it and discharged them,'such discharge would not be equivalent to an acquittal,, since it would not -bar the further prosecution: This- distinction was illustrated by.the rulings in the cases of Putnam and Ballew, supra. In those cases, as the ’error found to exist as to the particular counts which caused the reversal,-prevented , the .trial as to these counts from constituting legal jeopardy, .the case as to such counts was remanded for further proceedings thereunder, although the conviction as' to the counts in which there was no error was maintained.

Affirmed.