State v. Lewis

633 S.W.2d 110, 1982 Mo. App. LEXIS 3544
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 2, 1982
DocketWD 31885
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 633 S.W.2d 110 (State v. Lewis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Lewis, 633 S.W.2d 110, 1982 Mo. App. LEXIS 3544 (Mo. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinions

SHANGLER, Judge.

The defendant Lewis was convicted on separate counts of robbery second degree [§ 569.030, RSMo 1978], stealing [§ 570.030] and burglary first degree [§ 569.160]. The defendant was charged as a dangerous felon [under § 558.016] in each count. The jury returned sentences of ten years for robbery, five years for stealing and ten years for burglary. The court ordered that the multiple sentences run consecutively. The court, after evidence, expressly determined that the twenty-five year sentences returned by the jury were a sufficient punishment, and so withheld exercise of the power to enhance punishment against the defendant as a dangerous offender under § 558.016.1.

PART I

The defendant contends, first, that the trial was made unfair by the requirement to wear a green shirt with County Jai1, Co. Jail, or a like legend, on the back. He contends that this apparel with the jailhouse mark infringed the presumption of innocence due the defendant on a criminal trial. No doubt, to compel an accused to display himself to the jury in attire readily identified as prison dress, disparages the presumption of innocence and impairs a fair trial. Estelle v. Williams, 425 U.S. 501, 504, 96 S.Ct. 1691, 1693, 48 L.Ed.2d 126 (1976). The record shows no compulsion of dress, and so no infringement of right.

The complaint relates to the second day of the proceedings. The first day was taken with voir dire. The evidence does not show what the defendant wore that first day, but the colloquy on the post-trial motion intimates that it was personal apparel. Nor does the record suggest why that dress was no longer suitable on the successive day. From what appears, the defendant was presented for trial on that second day clothed in black trousers and suede shoes— both personal accoutrements — but in a green blouse furnished by the jailer. The court noted in comment:

COURT: Now, we were apparently not successful in getting a shirt for Mr. Lewis, although I understand that they had some up there that weren’t in too bad a shape. The guard told me over the phone that they had a gold one that wasn’t in too bad a shape.
DEFENDANT: Your Honor, the shirts are all wrinkled up.
COURT: They are what?
DEFENDANT: All wrinkled up
* * * s|s * *
COURT: Turn around. It [the green blouse] does have County Jail on it. Why don’t you keep your back to the seat there. It doesn’t have anything on the front that would necessarily indicate the jail. I understand your brother will be down at noon.
[113]*113DEFENDANT: Yes, with a pair of pants and shirt.
COURT: All right. Okay, go ahead, bring the jury down and we’ll get started.

A family member brought a change of shirt for the defendant during the noon recess and the trial proceeded without any report of an undue juror notice of the jail mark on the garment.

The defendant argues on the motion for new trial that on that second day of the proceedings, as he bent to consult with counsel, he noticed a male juror “looking at my shirt.” The recollection of the court was to the contrary. The transcript does not contain a report of that incident to the court nor that any objection was lodged. The complaint that the defendant was put to an unfair choice between dirty mufti or tidy jail dress — that the one presented the defendant as a person of slovenly habits and the other as a person unduly suspect of the crime — does not rest on fact. The jail guard reported to the court that a clean shirt was available but that the defendant refused the garment. In open court, before the jury convened on the second day, the defendant explained the rejection: the shirt was “all wrinkled up.” The choice of the prison dress instead was free, not compelled. A constitutional infringement is not shown; the complaint is denied. State v. Crump, 589 S.W.2d 328, 329 (Mo.App.1979).

The defendant contends also that robbery second degree encompasses stealing, so that the separate sentences for the convictions of those offenses — proven by the same conduct — constituted unlawful multiple punishments1 in violation of the intendment of the criminal code. The prosecution responds that the robbery and stealing were distinct criminal events separated, perpetrated and separately proved, so that the several consecutive punishments do not offend constitutional principle. Inquiry into the lawfulness of multiple convictions [and hence, punishments] begins, not with a constitutional decision, but with the intendment of the statutes — where such an analysis suffices for the purpose. Busic v. United States, 446 U.S. 398, 100 S.Ct. 1747, 1752, 64 L.Ed.2d 381 (1980); State v. Olds, 603 S.W.2d 501, 510 (Mo. banc 1980).

Our statutes enact a scheme to limit conviction for multiple offenses within this prescription:

§ 556.041
When the same conduct of a person may establish the commission of more than one offense he may be prosecuted for each such offense. He may not, however, be convicted of more than one offense, if (1) One offense is included in the other, as defined in section 556.046; ....
******
§ 556.046
1. A defendant may be convicted of an offense included in an offense charged in the indictment or information. An offense is so included when
(1) It is established by proof of the same or less than all the facts required to establish the commission of the offense charged; ...
******
2. The court shall not be obligated to charge the jury with respect to an included offense unless there is a basis [114]*114for a verdict acquitting the defendant of the offense charged and convicting him of the included offense.

Thus, as a matter of statutory policy, the state authority may prosecute and convict a person for multiple offenses from the same conduct, except that a conviction may not be returned on both an inclusive offense and the included offense, but only on either. Comments, The Missouri Criminal Code: A Manual for Court Related Personnel § 1.9 (1978).

The defendant was prosecuted and convicted under Count II for robbery second degree and under Count III for stealing from the same victim. The defendant agrees that both prosecutions and convictions were established by the same conduct. He contends that by the plain definition of § 556.046, stealing is an offense included within robbery second degree, and by the plain prescription of § 556.041, a defendant may not be convicted of more than one offense. Thus, he argues, the court was without authority under these statutes to convict [and then to punish] for stealing in addition to robbery second degree.

The code definition of included offense enacts, in paraphrase, the Blockbur-ger2

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State v. Lewis
633 S.W.2d 110 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1982)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
633 S.W.2d 110, 1982 Mo. App. LEXIS 3544, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-lewis-moctapp-1982.