State v. Hall

728 P.2d 1339, 224 Mont. 187, 1986 Mont. LEXIS 1124
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 2, 1986
Docket86-023
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 728 P.2d 1339 (State v. Hall) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana 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. Hall, 728 P.2d 1339, 224 Mont. 187, 1986 Mont. LEXIS 1124 (Mo. 1986).

Opinion

MR. CHIEF JUSTICE TURNAGE

delivered the Opinion of the Court.

Hall appeals from a jury conviction of incest in the Thirteenth Judicial District Court, Yellowstone County. On December 17, 1985, Hall was sentenced to ten years imprisonment with five years suspended.

We reverse with instructions to dismiss the action.

Hall raises two issues for our review:

1. Does retroactive application of the incest statute void the conviction?

2. Does double jeopardy bar Hall’s retrial on a charge of sexual assault?

On November 16, 1984, the State filed an information in Yellowstone County District Court charging Franklin T. Hall with felony sexual assault on July 3, 1983. The date of the charged offense was. later amended to July 2, 1983.

On October 31, 1985, Hall moved to dismiss the State’s information. Hall argued that the victim was Hall’s twelve-year-old stepdaughter, and therefore the proper charge should be incest, which carried a lesser penalty and different elements of proof. The District Court agreed and dismissed the State’s information. The State then *189 filed a new information charging a violation of Section 45-5-507, MCA, which provides:

“A person commits the offense of incest if he knowingly . . . has sexual intercourse with, or has sexual contact as defined in 45-2-101 with a . . . stepdaughter. . . A person convicted of incest shall be imprisoned in the state prison for any term not to exceed 10 years

Issue No. 1

Does retroactive application of the incest statute void Hall’s conviction?

The incest statute had been amended on April 21, 1983, effective October 1, 1983. The amendment added “stepdaughter” to the list of prohibited relationships. The controlling incest statute for Hall’s acts on July 2, 1983, did not include a stepdaughter among the victims. The Court notes that this case proceeded through trial and sentencing, without Hall or the State noticing the effective date of the amended incest statute.

As applied to Hall, the State’s retroactive enforcement of the amended incest statute violated Article II, Section 31, of the 1972 Montana Constitution: “No ex post facto law . . . shall be passed by the legislature.” This section is identical to Art. Ill, Section 11, of the 1889 Montana Constitution, under which we held: “[Retroactive effect is not to be given to a statute unless commanded by its context, terms, or manifest purpose.” Falligan v. School District (1917), 54 Mont. 177, 179, 169 P. 803, 804. We find nothing in the amended incest statute which permits retroactive application. The imposition of a sentence for a conviction, under statutes not in force at the time the offense was committed, is an ex post facto application of the law and therefore unconstitutional. State v. Gone (1978), 179 Mont. 271, 280, 587 P.2d 1291, 1297.

In its brief, the State admits that the incest statute was improperly and retroactively applied to an act which was noncriminal on July 2,1983. The State further admits that the conviction is void but wishes to re-prosecute Hall on its original charge of sexual assault.

Therefore, we reverse the conviction for incest as a matter of law and proceed to the issue of retrial for sexual assault.

Issue No. 2

*190 Does double jeopardy bar Hall’s retrial on a charge of sexual assault?

The Fifth Amendment clause against double jeopardy is enforceable in Montana through the Fourteenth Amendment. Benton v. Maryland (1969), 395 U.S. 784, 795, 89 S.Ct. 2056, 2063, 23 L.Ed.2d 707, 716. Furthermore, the Montana Constitution, Article II, Section 25, states: “No person shall be again put in jeopardy for the same offense previously tried in any jurisdiction.” Jeopardy attached in Hall’s incest trial at the empaneling and swearing of the jury. Crist v. Bretz (1978), 437 U.S. 28, 38, 98 S.Ct. 2156, 2162, 57 L.Ed.2d 24, 33.

The double jeopardy clause protects against a second prosecution for the same offense after acquittal, a second prosecution for the same offense after conviction, and multiple punishments for the same offense. State v. Lindseth (Mont. 1983), 203 Mont. 115, 659 P.2d 844, 846, 40 St.Rep. 333, 335. North Carolina v. Pearce (1969), 395 U.S. 711, 717, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 2076, 23 L.Ed.2d 656, 664-665.

If the offense charged in the second trial is the same in law and fact as the offense charged in the first trial, the double jeopardy clause prohibits successive trials. Brown v. Ohio (1977), 432 U.S. 161, 167, 97 S.Ct. 2221, 2226, 53 L.Ed.2d 187, 195, n. 6. In the instant case, double jeopardy is therefore predicated on whether Hall’s incestuous conduct constituted the same offense in law and in fact as sexual assault.

Sexual assault is defined in Section 45-5-502, MCA:

“A person who knowingly subjects another not his spouse to any sexual contact without consent commits the offense of sexual assault ... If the victim is less than 16 years old and the offender is 3 or more years older than the victim ... he shall be imprisoned in the state prison for any term not to exceed 20 years ...”

Hall’s conduct consisted of repeatedly fondling his stepdaughter’s genitals. Hall moved to dismiss the original charge of sexual assault, asserting that the proper charge should be incest, which carried a maximum sentence of only ten years. At the hearing on Hall’s motion, the State’s counsel argued that Section 46-11-502(4), MCA, gives the State discretion to charge either sexual assault or incest. In pertinent part, that statute provides:

“When the same transaction may establish the commission of more than one offense, a person charged with such conduct may be prosecuted for each such offense. He may not, however, be convicted of more than one offense if. . . (4) the offenses differ only in that one *191 is defined to prohibit a designated kind of conduct generally and the other to prohibit a specific instance of such conduct. . . . [Emphasis added.]”

In analyzing the “general” and “specific” conduct language, we note that the prosecution’s proof of “sexual contact” is the same in both the incest statute and the sexual assault statute. Section 45-2-101(60), MCA, states: “ ‘Sexual contact’ means any touching of the sexual or other intimate parts of the person of another for the purpose of arousing or gratifying the sexual desire of either party.”

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Bluebook (online)
728 P.2d 1339, 224 Mont. 187, 1986 Mont. LEXIS 1124, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-hall-mont-1986.