State v. Burgin

654 S.W.2d 627
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 28, 1983
DocketWD 33152
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 654 S.W.2d 627 (State v. Burgin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Burgin, 654 S.W.2d 627 (Mo. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

TURNAGE, Judge.

Arthur L. Burgin was charged with forcible rape, § 566.030 RSMo 1978, 1 and forci-' ble sodomy, § 566.060. The jury found him guilty on the rape charge only, and assessed punishment at 10 years imprisonment. In light of the fact that Burgin was a persistent sexual offender under § 558.018 RSMo 1980, the court imposed a sentence of 30 years without probation or parole.

Burgin contends that the jury verdict was inconsistent based on the evidence, and that the court was without authority to extend his sentence as a persistent sexual offender because the legislature had failed to provide a procedure for imposing an extended term. Affirmed.

The testimony of the victim, who testified that she had been both forcibly raped and sodomized, was the only direct evidence in the case. Thus, there was ample evidence on which the jury could have found Burgin guilty of both forcible rape and forcible sodomy, and Burgin does not contest the sufficiency of the evidence for his rape conviction.

*629 Burgin first contends that since the evidence from which the jury found him guilty of forcible rape also supported the forcible sodomy charge, the jury verdict was inconsistent. Burgin reasons that this inconsistency requires a reversal of his rape conviction.

This precise argument was raised and rejected in State v. Doney, 622 S.W.2d 227, 229[2] (Mo.App.1981). There, the defendant was convicted of rape and one count of deviate sexual intercourse and acquitted of another count of deviate sexual intercourse based upon the uniform testimony of a single witness. The Doney court relied on State v. McCall, 602 S.W.2d 702, 708[22] (Mo.App.1980), for the proposition that while a jury’s conclusions may offend the law’s penchant for consistency, inconsistent verdicts among the varied charges of a mul-ti-count indictment are not self-vitiating. Thus, Burgin’s conviction on the rape count and his acquittal on the sodomy count does not constitute an inconsistent verdict which requires reversal of the rape conviction.

Burgin’s next argument involves a claim that the legislature failed to provide a procedure for the imposition of an extended term for persons found by the court to be persistent sexual offenders. In 1980 the legislature passed § 558.018, which requires that courts sentence a person who has pleaded guilty to or who has been found guilty of forcible rape to an extended term of imprisonment if that person is a persistent sexual offender. Section 558.018 defines persistent sexual offender as one who has been previously convicted of rape, forcible rape, sodomy, forcible sodomy, or an attempt to commit any of these crimes. That section also specifies that the term of imprisonment for one found to be a persistent sexual offender be set at not less than 30 years and be served without probation or parole.

The gist of Burgin’s second argument is that the court was wrong in using § 558.018 in his case, because the legislature failed to provide a procedure for imposing the extended term discussed therein. As a basis for comparison, Burgin cites §§ 558.016 and 558.021, the former of which provides for extended terms for those found to be prior offenders, persistent offenders, or dangerous offenders, and the latter of which prescribes the procedure to extend the term to those persons. Burgin concludes that the absence of a comparable statute prescribing any procedure for extending the term of persistent sexual offenders deprives the court of the power to impose an extended term under § 558.018.

This argument is not supported by the law. The power to define crimes and prescribe punishment is exclusively vested in the legislature. State ex rel. Williams v. Marsh, 626 S.W.2d 223, 235[19] (Mo. banc 1982). Before a defendant’s term may be extended, the courts must accord such a defendant due process by guaranteeing the right to be present with counsel, the opportunity to be heard and to be confronted with witnesses against him and the right to cross-examine and to offer evidence in his own behalf. Specht v. Patterson, 386 U.S. 605, 87 S.Ct. 1209, 18 L.Ed.2d 326 (1967).

In State ex rel. Macklin v. Rombauer, 104 Mo. 619, 15 S.W. 850, 852 (1891), the court considered a provision of the 1875 constitution which granted the supreme court the power to issue writs of prohibition, but which failed to prescribe a procedure for the exercise of such jurisdiction. The Rom-bauer court stated: “It is a general rule of law which has passed into a maxim that a grant of power or jurisdiction is supposed to tacitly imply a grant of that without which the grant itself would be ineffectual.” This rule of construction was also stated in Ex Parte Sanford, 236 Mo. 665, 139 S.W. 376, 383 (banc 1911), where the court stated that “[tjhere is a familiar rule of statutory construction which fits this case like a glove fits the hand, namely, that, when a power is given by statute, everything necessary to make it effectual or requisite to attain the end is necessarily implied.” The same rule was stated in Shull v. Boyd, 251 Mo. 452, 158 S.W. 313, 320[7] (Mo.1913):

It has always been the rule that, when a clear main power is granted by the law, everything necessary to make it effectual *630 to attain its principal end is necessarily implied. A grant of power is to be construed so as to include the authority to do all usual things necessary to accomplish the object so granted.

Combining this rule of construction with the due process doctrine, it follows that when the legislature grants the power to impose an extended term for a person found to be a persistent sexual offender, the power to do all that is necessary to accomplish the sentencing of such a person has also been granted by necessary implication, and that in such cases the courts need only follow a procedure which will insure due process. Thus, the statutory grant of power to find persons to be persistent sexual offenders and to impose an extended term of imprisonment necessarily carries with it the power to adopt a procedure which would insure due process.

In extending Burgin’s prison term, the court followed the procedure outlined in § 558.021 even though that section was not specifically referred to in the persistent sexual offender section. That section prescribes a procedure which accords full due process rights, and Burgin in fact concedes that his full due process rights were granted. Thus, the court acted properly in implementing § 558.018 by following the procedures set forth in § 558.021.

Burgin further contends that the court was not authorized to extend his term of imprisonment under § 558.018 in light of § 557.036.

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

Related

State v. Hilton
929 S.W.2d 280 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1996)
Burgin v. State
847 S.W.2d 836 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1992)
State v. Katura
837 S.W.2d 547 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1992)
State v. Dowdy
774 S.W.2d 504 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1989)
Scharnhorst v. State
775 S.W.2d 241 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1989)
State v. Williams
700 S.W.2d 451 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1985)
State v. Cross
699 S.W.2d 51 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1985)
State v. O'DELL
684 S.W.2d 453 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1984)
State v. Davis
663 S.W.2d 301 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1983)
State v. Stapleton
661 S.W.2d 620 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1983)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
654 S.W.2d 627, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-burgin-moctapp-1983.