State v. Gutke

139 P. 346, 25 Idaho 737, 1914 Ida. LEXIS 23
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 13, 1914
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 139 P. 346 (State v. Gutke) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho 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. Gutke, 139 P. 346, 25 Idaho 737, 1914 Ida. LEXIS 23 (Idaho 1914).

Opinions

AILSHIE, C. J.

In this case the defendant was tried and acquitted upon the charge of selling two bottles of beer on the 13th of August, 1911, in Bingham county, to a minor in violation of the law which makes it a misdemeanor to sell intoxicating liquor to a minor. He was thereafter charged upon the same act and transaction with selling intoxicating liquor in Bingham county in violation of the local option statute, which makes it a misdemeanor to sell intoxicating [740]*740liquor within a prohibition district. On the trial of the latter charge the defendant plead “not guilty” and “former acquittal,” his plea of former acquittal being based on his trial and acquittal for selling intoxicating liquor to a minor.

The only question with which we are confronted on this appeal is whether this second conviction is in violation of section 7230 of the Rev. Codes of this state. That section reads as follows:

“An act or omission which is made punishable in different ways by different provisions of this code may be punished under either of such provisions, but in no case can it be punished under more than one; an acquittal or conviction and sentence under either one bars a prosecution for the same act or omission under any other. ’ ’

Our attention has only been called to one statute which is in any way similar to the foregoing, and that is section 654, Kerr’s California Penal Code, which is in the exact language of our statute, except that it has added thereto some reservations and exceptions. So far as we have been able to find, there is no decision of the California court that throws any light upon the inquiry which confronts us.

It should also be remembered upon the very threshold of our investigation of this case that our statute differs materially and essentially from the provisions of sec. 13, art. 1, of the state constitution, and the like provision of the federal constitution which provides that “no person shall be put twice in jeopardy for the same offense.” It should therefore be remembered, upon the very outset, that decisions from courts which discuss the foregoing constitutional provision with reference to being put “twice in jeopardy” for the same offense are in no essential respect applicable to the statute here under consideration. The constitutional provision deals with the subject of putting a defendant twice in jeopardy for the same offense. On the other hand, the statute (sec. 7230) above quoted is not dealing with the.“same offense,” but the same ‘ ‘ act or omission. ’ ’ In other words, the legislature has said that where an act or an omission to act is a violation of different statutes of this state and may be pun[741]*741ished under several statutes, the state may elect as to the statute under which it will prosecute the party, but “in no ease can” such party “be punished under more than one” statute. This statute appears to have been adopted from California by the 1872 codes, and it was first introduced into the Idaho statutes in the 1887 Revised Statutes. The’commission which proposed the Revised Statutes of 1887 of this territory was composed of some of the ablest lawyers in the territory, and they were undoubtedly familiar with the conflicting decisions and diversity of opinion among lawyers and judges as to just when a party can be legally said to have been “once in jeopardy” under the constitutional provision and when he may be again tried for the commission of the same act which is a violation of another statute, and, in our opinion, it was for the purpose of setting this question at rest, so far as any conflict might arise in Idaho, that this statute was adopted. This was before the admission of the state and the adoption of the constitution, and the legislature accordingly directed its prohibition against twice prosecuting a man for the same “act or omission,” although that act or omission might be a violation of several statutes and therefore constitutes several offenses.

In the case at bar, it is admitted and conceded by all parties that the act for which the appellant has been twice prosecuted consisted in selling two bottles of beer in Bingham county on the 13th day of August, 1911. The first prosecution was for making the sale to a minor. The jury acquitted the defendant on that charge. It may be that that acquittal was the result of the jury finding that the person to whom the sale was made was not a minor and still they might have been satisfied that a sale was made. The nest prosecution was for the same act, by charging that the sale was made in a prohibition district, Bingham county then being a “dry” county. The jury believed this charge and convicted the defendant. The state had a clear right to make its election as to which offense it would prosecute the defendant for committing, but when the facts of the transaction were once submitted to a jury under a charge that they were a viola[742]*742tion of a penal statute of the state and the jury returned a verdict thereon, it was clearly the intention of the legislature by the provisions of see. 7230 to forbid and prohibit any further prosecutions for the commission of that 'pa/rticular act. The fact that it was not necessary to prove the same facts upon one trial that must be proven upon another makes no difference in the real act itself and does not make the act consist of more than one transaction, nor does it render it divisible or change the facts and circumstances which go to make up the act of selling two specific bottles of beer on a given date.

The court takes judicial notice of the existence of a prohibition district and so that fact does not have to be proven. (See State v. Schmitz, 19 Ida. 566, 114 Pac. 1.)

The only case that we have found which is directly in point on this question is State v. Gapen, 17 Ind. App. 524, 45 N. E. 678, on rehearing 47 N. E. 25. In that case the defendant was first prosecuted and acquitted upon the charge of selling liquor to a minor and subsequently tried and convicted for selling liquor without a license. The Indiana appellate court sustained the conviction, but the opinions in that ease disclose that the discussion was had over the question of a person being twice put in jeopardy “for the same offense,” and the argument and reasoning of the court revolves about that phase of the question, which makes it clear that if the court had been discussing a statute dealing with the “same act” instead of the “same offense,” it would have reached a different conclusion and would have, in our opinion, judging from their line of reasoning, reversed the judgment of conviction. The original opinion in State v. Gapen was based squarely upon the provision of the Indiana constitution, which reads as follows: “No person shall be put in. jeopardy twice for the same offense.” Even under a constitutional provision like this which is to be found in all the states, the majority of the courts have held to the views we have above expressed.

A good illustration of this is to be found in Cook v. State, 43 Tex. Cr. 182, 96 Am. St. 854, 63 S. W. 872. The court in discussing the question of “once in jeopardy” said: “But [743]*743where there is one act, one intent, one violation .... then appellant cannot be convicted upon an act, intent and violation for which he has been previously acquitted. ’ ’

In State v. Colgate, 31 Kan. 511, 47 Am. Rep. 507, 3 Pac. 346, defendant was indicted and acquitted of burning a mill.

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

Related

State v. Reichenberg
915 P.2d 14 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1996)
State v. Lynch
883 P.2d 1080 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1994)
State v. Castañeda
869 P.2d 234 (Idaho Court of Appeals, 1994)
State v. Lowe
815 P.2d 450 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1991)
State v. Sterley
739 P.2d 396 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1987)
State v. Brusseau
532 P.2d 563 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1975)
State v. Wall
248 P.2d 222 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1952)
State v. Petty
248 P.2d 218 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1952)
State v. Holt
194 P.2d 651 (Montana Supreme Court, 1948)
State v. Randolph
102 P.2d 913 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1940)
State v. McKeehan
289 P. 993 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1930)
State v. Marchindo
211 P. 1093 (Montana Supreme Court, 1922)
State v. Douglass
208 P. 236 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1922)
State v. Kusick
180 N.W. 1021 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1921)
State v. Bilboa
190 P. 248 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1920)
State v. Crawford
179 P. 511 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1919)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
139 P. 346, 25 Idaho 737, 1914 Ida. LEXIS 23, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-gutke-idaho-1914.