State v. Dye

142 P. 873, 81 Wash. 388, 1914 Wash. LEXIS 1620
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 2, 1914
DocketNo. 11838
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 142 P. 873 (State v. Dye) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Dye, 142 P. 873, 81 Wash. 388, 1914 Wash. LEXIS 1620 (Wash. 1914).

Opinion

Chadwick, J.

— On the 3d day of September, 1912, the prosecuting attorney of Stevens county filed an information under Rem. & Bal. Code, § 2436 (P. C. 135 § 367), charg[389]*389ing the appellant with the crime of having carnal knowledge of a child. The charging part of the information is as follows :

“That within three years immediately preceding the date of the filing of this information in the county of Stevens, state of Washington, the said defendant L. L. Dye, then and there being, then and there wilfully, unlawfully and feloniously did carnally know and abuse.........., a female child between the ages of ten and fifteen years, ... by then and there having unlawful sexual intercourse with the said ..........contrary to the statute, etc. . . .”

The case was brought to trial on the 13th day of November, 1912, upon defendant’s plea of not guilty. A jury was impaneled and sworn, and the state put in its evidence. Having rested, counsel for defendant moved for a dismissal. After argument and consideration of the motion, it was granted, and a judgment of dismissal entered, “the state having failed to introduce sufficient evidence to support the crime charged in the information.” On November 14, 1912, the prosecuting attorney filed an information charging defendant with having committed the crime of rape, under Rem. & Bal. Code, § 2435 (P. C. 135 § 365), the charging part of the information being:

“On or about February 1st, A. D. 1912, in the county of Stevens, state of Washington, the said defendant, L. L. Dye, then and there being, did then and there wilfully, unlawfully, feloniously, and by forcibly overcoming her resistance, against her will and without her consent, have sexual intercourse with one........, a female child above the age of ten years, to wit: of the age of about fifteen years, and not the wife of said L. L. Dye, . . .”

To this information, defendant interposed a plea of former acquittal, which plea was renewed at the time the jury was called and sworn to try the case, and again when the state had rested.

We think there can be no doubt that the plea of former acquittal should have been sustained, as a matter of law. [390]*390There was no question as to the identity of the parties, and although the second information was drawn charging carnal knowledge by force, the same evidence would have supported a conviction under the first information. Indeed, it is as complete a charge under § 2436 as was the first information. Defendant is charged in the first information with having, within three years last past, carnally known a female child between the ages of ten and fifteen years, she being a person other than his wife; and in the second information, with having had, within three years, sexual intercourse with a female above the age of ten years, to wit, of the age of about fifteen years “and not Ms ’wife.”

Crimes are known by the charging part of the information, and not by the particular name used by the pleader.

“Was the matter set out in the second indictment admissible as evidence under the first indictment, and could a conviction have been properly maintained upon such evidence? If the answer is yes, then the plea is sufficient; otherwise, it is not.” 1 Wharton, Criminal Law (11th ed.), § 393.

Under either statute, and under either information, the element of force is immaterial. We have, therefore, in legal effect, the same charge, under which evidence of the same offense might have been admitted, the only open question being the immaterial one of force. The state did not offer to show any excusatory facts warranting the filing of a second information; neither illness of a juror, the prisoner, or the court, the absence of a juryman, impossibility of the jury agreeing on a verdict, or any accident that rendered a verdict impossible; or any extreme or overwhelming physical or legal necessity (1 Wharton, Criminal Law, 11th ed., § 294) ; admitting, but without deciding, that any óf these conditions would have availed the state.

The state contends, however, that the defendant, having moved for a dismissal, consented to the judgment which was entered in the former proceeding. Many cases are cited to sustain the assertion that, where a defendant consents to an [391]*391arrest of the trial, no jeopardy will attach. This is true and is well sustained by authority; but here there was not only a presentment, in a court of competent jurisdiction, before a jury, upon a sufficient information, but, after a full hearing of the state’s case, a judgment on the merits was entered. Defendant did not consent to anything, but demanded and received the judgment of the law upon an admitted state of facts. While a proper practice would have been to take a directed verdict, in which event no question could have been raised, yet the legal effect of the motion is the same as if the proper one had been made. State v. Hyde, 22 Wash. 551, 563, 61 Pac. 719.

Mr. Wharton lays down a test which applies to this case:

“Test as to whether two indictments are for the same offense is the fact whether evidence necessary to support the latter indictment would have sustained a conviction under the former indictment. Testimony to sustain the second charge not being admissible to sustain the first charge, there is no former jeopardy.” 1 Wharton, Criminal Law (11th ed.), p. 528, § 395.

The prosecuting attorney contends that, the jury being charged to make deliverance by verdict, nothing less than a verdict can avail defendant. He says, if a jury is discharged without rendering a verdict, there is no jeopardy.

We have already suggested that, under a practice such as prevails in this state permitting a judge to pass upon the legal sufficiency of the facts and to direct a verdict if there be no sufficient facts, a judgment on the merits is a bar. If it were not so the constitutional guarantee “that no person shall be twice put in jeopardy for the same offense” (§9, art. 1) would mean nothing and judgments would be no protection to one charged with crime. In the case of State v. Kinghorn, 56 Wash. 131, 105 Pac. 234, 27 L. R. A. (N. S.) 136, we said:

“The better rule and the one supported by the decided weight of authority is that, when the accused has been placed [392]*392upon trial in a court of competent jurisdiction on a sufficient indictment, before a jury legally impaneled and sworn, the constitutional peril has attached, and that a discharge of the jury without good cause and without the consent of the accused is equivalent to an acquittal.”

See, also, 1 Wharton, Criminal Law (11th ed.), § 394. If such be the law, how much more conclusive is the j udgment of the court upon the merits, and behind which a court will not go in a collateral proceeding. The case of State v. Price, 127 Iowa 301, 103 N. W. 195, is in point and meets the contention of the state that a different date was relied on to prove the offense under the second information. The state had made a blanket charge in the first, as well as in the second, information. Defendant was called upon to meet a charge of criminal liability covering a period of three years. Inasmuch as the same evidence was admissible under the two in-formations, we think, as did the Iowa court, that the former judgment,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
142 P. 873, 81 Wash. 388, 1914 Wash. LEXIS 1620, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-dye-wash-1914.