State v. Garcia

605 P.2d 671, 288 Or. 413
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 22, 1980
DocketTC C 78-01-00208, CA 11307, SC 26150
StatusPublished
Cited by119 cases

This text of 605 P.2d 671 (State v. Garcia) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon 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. Garcia, 605 P.2d 671, 288 Or. 413 (Or. 1980).

Opinions

[415]*415LENT, J.

The defendant was charged with rape in the first degree, ORS 163.375; kidnapping in the first degree, ORS 163.235; and three counts of sodomy in the first degree, ORS 163.405. All of the charges arose out of conduct involving the same victim in Portland, Oregon on January 8, 1978. A jury found the defendant guilty on all five counts. The trial court sentenced the defendant to máximums of 20 years on the rape charge, 20 years on the kidnapping charge, and 20 years on each sodomy charge, each sentence to run consecutively, for a total term not to exceed 100 years.

The defendant appealed to the Court of Appeals, which affirmed the conviction from the bench, 37 Or App 675, 588 P2d 687 (1978). This court allowed review, ORS 2.520; 287 Or 129, 592 P2d 1021 (1979).

The defendant raises three principal arguments on review. He contends that a separate conviction and sentence for kidnapping is contrary to the legislative intent of ORS 163.235; that the several sexual offenses should be treated as a single criminal episode and therefore should not be punished separately; and that if the separate sexual offenses are punished separately, the sentences should be held excessive under substantive sentence review, ORS 138.040.

At about 8:30 p.m. on January 8, 1978, the defendant, walking on a street in Portland, grabbed the victim, a female who was walking alone. He put his hand over her mouth and a knife at her throat and told her not to say anything. He forced her to cross the street and walk two blocks and then across another street. He then took her behind a house and forcibly raped and sodomized her. These events consumed about forty minutes.

I

The defendant argues that a separate conviction and sentence for kidnapping is improper. The answer [416]*416to this contention is found in the relevant kidnapping statutes.

The 1971 legislature adopted the present kidnapping statutes1 as part of the complete revision of the Oregon Criminal Code. The 1967 legislature created the Oregon Criminal Law Revision Commission to revise the criminal laws of this state. Carefully kept records of the proceedings of the Commission and of its subcommittees were preserved and, accordingly, provide a rich source for determination of the drafters’ intent. The Commission’s first draft of the kidnapping sections was adopted from the Model Penal Code2 and contained the following commentary:

[417]*417"Current kidnaping statutes apply to abductions which are incidental to or an integral part of the commission of an independent crime such as robbery or rape where the victim is removed and confined for a given period to effectuate the criminal purpose. Where the detention period is brief there is no genuine kidnaping. However, cases of this nature are sometimes prosecuted as kidnaping in order to secure the death penalty or life imprisonment for behavior that amounts in substance to rape or robbery in jurisdictions where these offenses are not subject to such penalties. People v. Chessman, 238 P2d 1001 (1951). The Model Penal Code and the New York Revised Penal Law have tried to exclude this type of case from first degree kidnaping by differentiating on the basis of the movement and duration of detention of the victim. The Model Penal Code provides for kidnaping only where the kidnaper removes the victim from his place of residence or business, or a substantial distance from the vicinity where he is found, or if the kidnaper unlawfully confines the victim for a substantial period in a place of isolation. New York has selected the arbitrary figure of twelve hours to designate the point in the course of a criminal project at which the abduction becomes a major offense in itself and not merely a facet of some other crime.”

The minutes following the presentation of the first draft indicate that the drafters considered the situation where kidnapping charges are brought in addition to robbery or rape charges. The minutes reveal that the drafters intended to prevent conviction and sentencing for kidnapping when the detention was merely incidental to a rape or robbery.3 The difficulty facing [418]*418the drafters, however, was to provide the flexibility to cover diverse kidnapping fact situations, yet rationally restrict prosecutorial discretion to punish.4

[419]*419The language of the proposed kidnapping statutes was revised three times.5 The commentary following each revision included the above-quoted passage.6 This [420]*420passage was also included in the tentative and final draft commentaries, but the drafters added the following paragraph:7

"The proposed draft solves this problem [of excluding abductions which are incidental to or an integral part of the commission of an independent crime] by strictly limiting kidnapping in the first degree to only those instances where the actor’s purpose in abducting falls within subsection (1) of [ORS 163.235 (Kidnapping in the First Degree)].”

This paragraph of commentary is less than clear. In the preceding paragraph of commentary, the drafters discussed the problem of unwarranted kidnapping convictions where the abduction is merely incidental to a robbery or rape, citing the Model Penal Code and New York approaches to this problem. The "solution,” however, refers only to Oregon’s first degree kidnapping statute, and states that this offense is strictly limited by the words of the statute itself.

From this history we draw the inference that the Commission, and subsequently the legislature, intended that there be no conviction of the defendant for the separate crime of kidnapping where the detention or asportation of the victim is merely incidental to the accomplishment of another crime, particularly that of robbery or rape. On the other hand, we infer that the Commission and legislature perceived no reason not to prosecute and punish a malefactor for the separate crime of kidnapping where the detention or asportation is not merely incidental to the commission of the underlying crime.

The drafting technique utilized to accomplish the legislative purpose is manifested in the definition of the crime of kidnapping. The Commission reasoned that even though the malefactor’s conduct offended [421]*421the statutory injunctions against rape or robbery, he would be guilty of kidnapping also if in committing rape or robbery he took the victim a "substantial distance” or held the victim "a substantial period of time.” See n. 3, supra.8

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Bluebook (online)
605 P.2d 671, 288 Or. 413, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-garcia-or-1980.