State v. Cowman

29 N.W.2d 238, 239 Iowa 56, 1947 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 343
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedOctober 14, 1947
DocketNo. 47064.
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 29 N.W.2d 238 (State v. Cowman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Cowman, 29 N.W.2d 238, 239 Iowa 56, 1947 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 343 (iowa 1947).

Opinion

Hays, J.

Shelley Cowman was convicted by a jury in Story County, Iowa, under an indictment charging him with the crime of larceny from a building in the nighttime. The material part of said indictment is as follows:

“The said Shelley Cowman on or about the 13th day of March [1946] * # * did steal, take and carry- away 238 cartons of cigarettes in excess of value of $300, the property of one Jeffrey Ilouge, and the said stealing, taking and carrying away * * * was committed in the nighttime and the property * * * was taken from a building known as the Imperial Oil station.” *

To this indictment the defendant pleaded not guilty and former acquittal. From a verdict and judgment of guilty, defendant appeals.

Appellant urges three assignments of error as a basis for reversal: (1) The judgment in Case No. 2609 operated as an acquittal in the present Case No. 2632. (2) The court erred in overruling defendant’s motions for a directed verdict. (3) *58 The court erred in overruling defendant’s motions in arrest of judgment and for a new trial.

I: Appellant’s principal contention is bis claim of former acquittal. At tbe instant trial it was stipulated by the parties, in substance, as follows: On April 8, 1946, a county attorney’s information was filed, and approved by the Story County District Court, in which Shelley Cowman was accused of breaking and entering. The information contained the following: *

“Shelley Cowman on or about the 12th day of March, 1946 * * * did break and enter the Imperial Oil and Gas Station * * * operated by'one Jeffrey Houge * * * and did take and carry away about 260 cartons of cigarettes * * * belonging to the said Jeffrey Houge, and that said offense was committed sometime subsequent to about ten o’clock p.m. of March 12, 1946, and the early morning of March 13, 1946.”

That on January 13, 1947, said Cowman went on trial on his plea of not guilty. A jury was impaneled, sworn, and trial commenced. On January 14, 1947, the county attorney, on behalf of the State, moved to dismiss the action for insufficient evidence to convict the defendant, due to the absence of a material witness. The motion was sustained, the defendant discharged, and his bond released.

It was further stipulated that the Imperial Oil and Gas Station, Jeffrey Houge, cigarettes, and dates referred to in the information are the same as referred to in the indictment in the instant case.

The protection against double jeopardy is .found in the old common law and also in both the Federal Constitution and our State Constitution. This court has held that the provision of the Federal Constitution applies only to offenses against and trials under the laws of the United States. See State v. Manley, 197 Iowa 46, 196 N. W. 724.

Section 12 of Article I of the Constitution of Iowa provides: “No person shall after acquittal, be tried for the same offence.” (Italics supplied.) An acquittal, as defined by Webster’s New International Dictionary, Second Ed., is: “A setting free, or deliverance from the charge of an offense, by *59 verdict of a jury, sentence of a court, or other legal .process.”

Section 13807, Code, 1939 (777.20, Code, 1946) states: “A conviction or acquittal by a judgment upon a verdict shall bar another prosecution for the same offense” and in construing this statute we held in State v. Fields, 106 Iowa 406, 76 N. W. 802, that it did not exclude a conviction or acquittal without a verdict from having the same effect. See, also, State v. Callendine, 8 (Clarke) Iowa 288.

Under both section 12 of Article I of the Constitution of Iowa and section 777.20, Code, 1946, both of -which refer specifically to another prosecution for the sam-e offense, if the charge in the information in Case No. 2609 of breaking and entering is the same offense as charged in the indictment in the instant case, namely, larceny from a building in the nighttime, then appellant’s plea of former acquittal was good and the defendant should have been discharged.

In determining the question “for the same offense,” we said in the case of State v. Folger, 204 Iowa 1296, 210 N. W. 580, that an acquittal is a bar to a subsequent prosecution if proof of the subsequent allegations would have sustained a conviction under the indictment under which the acquittal was had: otherwise not. In State v. Jacobson, 197 Iowa 547, 549, 197 N. W. 638, 639, the test was announced to be:

“The rule now generally recognized is that, in order that the plea of former jeopardy may be available, it must appear that the two offenses are in substance the same, or of the same nature or same species, so that the evidence which proves the one would prove the other. If, however, an essential"element of one offense is not necessarily present in the other, then there is no former jeopardy, although the same evidence may be offered to sustain the indictment in each case.”

In the case of State v. Ingalls, 98 Iowa 728, 730, 68 N. W. 445, we 'held that an acquittal of larceny is not a bar to a prosecution for breaking and entering based upon the same facts. We there said: “The offense in one case was against the property broken and entered; in the other it was against the owner of the goods which w^ere said to have been stolen.” They are *60 different offenses. See, also, State v. Leonard, 135 Iowa 371, 112 N. W. 784; State v. Shaffer, 59 Iowa 290, 13 N. W. 306.

It is well established under the rules above stated, and in line with our decisions, that an acquittal of the charge of breaking and entering is not an acquittal of an offense in an indictment charging larceny from a building in the nighttime, based upon the same situation, and such a holding does not violate either section 12 of Article I of the Constitution of Iowa or section 777.20, Code, 1946.

Appellant, however, also relies upon section 785.1, Code, 1946. This section provides:

“The jury must render a general verdict of ‘guilty’ or ‘not guilty’, which imports a conviction or acquittal on every material allegation in the indictment, except upon a plea of former conviction or acquittal of the same offense, in which case it shall be ‘for the state’ or ‘for the defendant.’ ”

As before stated, the rule of double jeopardy comes to us from the old common law. However, Iowa is not a common-law state and all matters of crime and criminal procedure are statutory. Protection against double jeopardy is given under the article of the Iowa Constitution and statute above cited and discussed. The section now under discussion, section 785.1, Code, 1946, is not one dealing with the question of double jeopardy but is a statement by the legislature as to the force and effect of a verdict by a jury of “guilty” or “not guilty”. The former pertains only to “the same offenses”; the latter, to any verdict in any criminal case.

Appellant can gain no comfort from this section for two reasons: (1) Case No.

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Bluebook (online)
29 N.W.2d 238, 239 Iowa 56, 1947 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 343, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-cowman-iowa-1947.