State v. Burke

443 N.E.2d 859, 1983 Ind. App. LEXIS 2513
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 4, 1983
Docket3-482A74
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 443 N.E.2d 859 (State v. Burke) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana 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. Burke, 443 N.E.2d 859, 1983 Ind. App. LEXIS 2513 (Ind. Ct. App. 1983).

Opinion

GARRARD, Judge.

The State of Indiana appeals from the trial court’s dismissal of an information filed against Scott R. Burke.

On July 18, 1980 an officer of the Culver Police Department stopped a vehicle in which Burke and a companion were riding. The officer observed several cans of beer in the vehicle, and upon determining that Burke was eighteen years old the officer issued Burke a traffic ticket charging him with being a minor in possession of alcohol. IC 7.1-5-7-7. The officer also discovered in the vehicle marijuana and phencyclidine.

On July 22 Burke was arraigned on the possession of alcohol charge. He pled guilty and was fined. On August 20, the state filed an additional two-count information against Burke charging him with: (1) possession of marijuana in aggregate weight of less than thirty grams, a Class A misdemeanor; and (2) possession of a controlled substance (phencyclidine), a Class D felony.

Prior to his arraignment on these charges, Burke moved to dismiss the indictments. In his motion Burke argued that the prior prosecution barred the present prosecution. The trial court granted Burke’s motion, and the state appeals.

The question we must decide is whether IC 35-41-4r4 barred the state from proceeding with the second prosecution even though there was not such an identity of the offenses as to implicate the prohibition against double jeopardy. 1 The statute provides:

“(a) A prosecution is barred if all of the following exist:
(1) There was a former prosecution of the defendant for a different offense or for the same offense based on different facts.
(2) The former prosecution resulted in an acquittal or a conviction of the defendant or in an improper termination under Section 3 of this chapter.
(3) The instant prosecution is for an offense -with which the defendant should have been charged in the former prosecution.
(b) A prosecution is not barred under this section if the offense on which it is based was not consummated when the trial under the former prosecution began.”

*861 Burke contends that because the offenses with which he is presently charged occurred at the same time as the prior offense, the state was required by IC 35-41-4-4 to file in one proceeding all charges relating to his acts at that time. By failing to bring all such charges against him in one proceeding, Burke contends that the state is now barred from prosecuting him for the omitted offenses. Conversely, the state argues that the prosecutor was not required to join all possible charges against Burke in one action because all the requirements of IC 35-41-4 — 4 are not met in this case.

Both sides acknowledge the existence of the statute’s first two requirements and the inapplicability of paragraph (b). The question to be decided is the proper interpretation of the statute’s third requirement that the present prosecution is one “with which the defendant should have been charged in the former prosecution.”

Burke urges that the statute should be interpreted to apply to all offenses committed in the same relative time frame or as part of the same general criminal episode. He argues that this interpretation is necessary to give meaning to the statute since a separate statute, IC 35-41-4-3, concerns the bar for double jeopardy. He offers no Indiana decisions to support his position but does cite cases from three other jurisdictions as persuasive authority. See People v. West (1974), 54 Mich.App. 527, 221 N.W.2d 179; State v. Johnson (1974), 17 Or.App. 296, 521 P.2d 1316; State v. Finn (1972), 295 Minn. 520, 203 N.W.2d 114.

In People v. West the Michigan court held that the appellant could not be prosecuted for resisting arrest after he had been found guilty on a prior charge of “disorderly creating a disturbance” from the same sequence of events because the Michigan Supreme Court had adopted the “same transaction” test in applying the constitutional protection against double jeopardy. 221 N.W.2d at 180.

Similarly, in State v. Finn the Minnesota court held that Section 609.035 of the criminal code barring separate prosecutions where “a person’s conduct constitutes more than one offense” should be interpreted to bar prosecution where the offenses occur at substantially the same time and place, arise from a continuous course of conduct and manifest an indivisible state of mind or coincident errors of judgment. 203 N.W.2d at 115.

Our Supreme Court has considered and rejected this approach to the double jeopardy prohibition in favor of the traditional test of Blockburger v. United States (1932), 284 U.S. 299, 52 S.Ct. 180, 76 L.Ed. 306. See Washington v. State (1981), Ind., 422 N.E.2d 1218; Elmore v. State (1978), 269 Ind. 532, 382 N.E.2d 893. We, therefore, find the Michigan and Minnesota decisions inapposite.

In State v. Johnson, supra, the Oregon court relied upon a mandatory joinder statute, ORS 131.515(2) which provides:

“No person shall be separately prosecuted for two or more offenses based upon the same criminal episode, if the several offenses are reasonably known to the appropriate prosecutor at the time of commencement of the first prosecution and establish proper venue in a single court.”

A provision similar to the Oregon one was contained in the Criminal Law Study Commission’s recommendation to the legislature 2 but was deleted when the statute was enacted.

Indiana’s general joinder statute is permissive. It provides:

*862 “Two [2] or more offenses can be joined in the same indictment or information, with each offense stated in a separate count, when the offenses:
(1) Are of the same or similar character, even if not part of a single scheme or plan; or
(2) Are based on the same conduct or on a series of acts connected together or constituting parts of a single scheme or plan.”

IC 35-3.1-1-9(a), recodified as IC 35-34-1-9(a). See Snodgrass v. State (1979), Ind. App., 395 N.E.2d 816.

The only other statute that appears to have bearing on the issue is IC 35-3.1-1-10, recodified as IC 35-34-1-10, which provides:

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

Related

Hamer v. State
771 N.E.2d 109 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 2002)
Williams v. State
762 N.E.2d 1216 (Indiana Supreme Court, 2002)
Moore v. State
697 N.E.2d 1268 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1998)
State v. Wiggins
661 N.E.2d 878 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1996)
Gregory v. State
596 N.E.2d 270 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1992)
Sharp v. State
569 N.E.2d 962 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1991)
Seay v. State
550 N.E.2d 1284 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1990)
State v. Boze
482 N.E.2d 276 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1985)
Phillippe v. State
458 N.E.2d 1159 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1984)
Martakis v. State
450 N.E.2d 128 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1983)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
443 N.E.2d 859, 1983 Ind. App. LEXIS 2513, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-burke-indctapp-1983.