State v. Labbe

2009 ME 94, 979 A.2d 693, 2009 Me. LEXIS 97, 2009 WL 2616248
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedAugust 27, 2009
DocketDocket: Som-08-645
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 2009 ME 94 (State v. Labbe) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Judicial Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Labbe, 2009 ME 94, 979 A.2d 693, 2009 Me. LEXIS 97, 2009 WL 2616248 (Me. 2009).

Opinion

SILVER, J.

[¶ 1] The State of Maine appeals from a judgment, entered in the District Court (Skowhegan, Nivison, /.), dismissing a charge of violation of condition of release (Class E), 15 M.R.S. § 1092(1)(A) (2008), which accounted for one count of a criminal complaint against Michael Labbe. The other count, which formed the basis for the violation of condition of release charge, was for operating while his license was suspended (Class E), 29-A M.R.S. § 2412-A(1-A)(D) (2008). At Labbe’s arraignment, he pleaded guilty to the charge of operating while his license was suspended and was sentenced to forty-eight hours in jail and a $500 fíne. He pleaded not guilty to the violation of condition of release charge. Labbe filed a motion to dismiss the violation of condition of release charge on the basis of double jeopardy. The court granted Labbe’s motion, and the State appeals. We vacate.

[¶ 2] We review the judgment de novo because the appeal involves the interpretation of constitutional and statutory provisions. See McGee v. Sec’y of State, 2006 ME 50, ¶ 5, 896 A.2d 933, 936.

[¶ 3] The Double Jeopardy Clause, set forth in the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, provides that no person shall “be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb.” The Double Jeopardy Clause is applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment. State v. Jordan, 1998 ME 174, ¶ 7, 716 A.2d 1004, 1005 (citing Benton v. Maryland, 395 U.S. 784, 794, 89 S.Ct. 2056, 23 L.Ed.2d 707 (1969)). Article I, section 8 of the Maine Constitution states: “No person, for the same offense, shall be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb.” These state and federal constitutional protections are coterminous. Id. ¶ 7, 716 A.2d at 1005-06.

[¶ 4] The Double Jeopardy Clause provides three protections: (1) it “protects against a second prosecution for the same offense after acquittal”; (2) it “protects against a second prosecution for the same *695 offense after conviction”; and (3) it “protects against multiple punishments for the same offense.” Ohio v. Johnson, 467 U.S. 493, 497-98,104 S.Ct. 2536, 81 L.Ed.2d 425 (1984) (quotation marks omitted).

[¶ 5] The State concedes that the charge of operating after suspension and the charge of violation of condition of release are the same offense for purposes of the application of the Double Jeopardy Clause. We analyze this case under the second and third protections, i.e., the protection against a second prosecution for the same offense after conviction, and the protection against multiple punishments for the same offense.

[¶ 6] Two charges that are considered the same offense for purposes of double jeopardy may be prosecuted in the same proceeding, but not in successive, temporally separate proceedings. Johnson, 467 U.S. at 500-01, 104 S.Ct. 2536 (citing Brown v. Ohio, 432 U.S. 161, 97 S.Ct. 2221, 53 L.Ed.2d 187 (1977)); United States v. Henry, 519 F.3d 68, 73 (1st Cir. 2008) (citing United States v. Dixon, 509 U.S. 688, 113 S.Ct. 2849, 125 L.Ed.2d 556 (1993)). In Henry, the First Circuit came to a straightforward and useful conclusion after analyzing the Supreme Court’s majority opinion in Dixon along with its multiple concurrences and dissents:

In relevant part, the majority holding of Dixon stands for the narrow proposition that an individual may not be prosecuted for an underlying, substantive offense and criminal contempt in temporally separate proceedings. The divided court left open the possibility that an individual could be punished for both contempt and an underlying offense in a single proceeding without implicating constitutional concerns.

Henry, 519 F.3d at 73 (citation and footnote omitted) (upholding, on plain error review, the defendant’s conviction, in a single proceeding, for drug trafficking and contempt for violating the terms of his pretrial release).

[¶ 7] Under this analysis, the determination whether Labbe was subjected to a violation of the Double Jeopardy Clause protection against a second prosecution for the same offense after conviction turns on whether the State prosecuted the operating after suspension and violation of condition of release charges in a single proceeding. Labbe contends that the prosecution of the violation of condition of release is a totally separate proceeding from the guilty plea on the charge of operating while his license was suspended. We disagree. Labbe’s prosecution for both charges occurred in a single proceeding.

[¶ 8] The prosecution of Labbe on the charges of operating while his license was suspended and violation of condition of release is analogous to the constitutionally permissible prosecution on multiple charges in Johnson, 467 U.S. at 500, 104 S.Ct. 2536. In Johnson, the defendant was indicted for four offenses ranging from murder to grand theft. Id. at 494, 104 S.Ct. 2536. He offered to plead guilty to charges of involuntary manslaughter and grand theft, but he pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and aggravated robbery. Id. The state objected to the pleas, but the trial court accepted them, sentenced the defendant, and granted his motion to dismiss the two more serious charges on the basis of double jeopardy. Id. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that there was no double jeopardy because all four charges were returned in a single indictment and prosecuted in a single proceeding. Id. at 500-01, 104 S.Ct. 2536. The Court stated:

Respondent’s argument is apparently based on the assumption that trial proceedings, like amoebae, are capable of being infinitely subdivided, so that a de *696 termination of guilt and punishment on one count of a multicount indictment immediately raises a double jeopardy bar to continued prosecution on any remaining counts that are greater or lesser included offenses of the charge just concluded. We have never held that, and decline to hold it now.

Id. at 501, 104 S.Ct. 2536. The Supreme Court noted that (1) there was no issue of prosecutorial overreaching, and (2) it was the defendant’s pleas, rather than any action by the state, that brought about the separate dispositions of the charges. Id. at 501-02, 104 S.Ct. 2536. The Court concluded that the defendant “should not be entitled to use the Double Jeopardy Clause as a sword to prevent the State from completing its prosecution on the remaining charges.” Id. at 502, 104 S.Ct. 2536. The prosecution of Labbe did not violate the Double Jeopardy Clause protection against a second prosecution for the same offense after conviction.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2009 ME 94, 979 A.2d 693, 2009 Me. LEXIS 97, 2009 WL 2616248, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-labbe-me-2009.