State v. Lovejoy

683 N.E.2d 1112, 79 Ohio St. 3d 440
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 24, 1997
DocketNo. 96-686
StatusPublished
Cited by213 cases

This text of 683 N.E.2d 1112 (State v. Lovejoy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio 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. Lovejoy, 683 N.E.2d 1112, 79 Ohio St. 3d 440 (Ohio 1997).

Opinions

Lundberg Stratton, J.

The issue presented to us in this case is whether the doctrines of double jeopardy and collateral estoppel apply when a jury finds a defendant not guilty as to some counts and is hung as to. other counts. We find that these doctrines do not apply where the inconsistency in the responses arises out of inconsistent responses to different counts, not out of inconsistent responses to the same count. In such cases, we further find the prosecution is entitled to retry the hung-jury counts provided that other criteria, such as sufficiency of the evidence, are met to allow retrial.

[443]*443A review of the purpose and history of double jeopardy and collateral estoppel is useful in resolving this issue. Double jeopardy was established by the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which states: “No person shall * * * be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb * * *.” The Fifth Amendment has been made applicable to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment.

It is well established that the Double Jeopardy Clause protects against successive prosecutions for the same offense. United States v. Dixon (1993), 509 U.S. 688, 696, 113 S.Ct. 2849, 2855, 125 L.Ed.2d 556, 567. It protects a person who has been acquitted from having to run the gauntlet a second time. Ashe v. Swenson (1970), 397 U.S. 436, 445-446, 90 S.Ct. 1189, 1195, 25 L.Ed.2d 469, 476-477. As stated in Green v. United States (1957), 355 U.S. 184, 187-188, 78 S.Ct. 221, 223, 2 L.Ed.2d 199, 204:

“The underlying idea [embodied in the Double Jeopardy Clause], one that is deeply ingrained in at least the Anglo-American system of jurisprudence, is that the State with all its resources and power should not be allowed to make repeated attempts to convict an individual for an alleged offense, thereby subjecting him to embarrassment, expense and ordeal and compelling him to live in a continuing state of anxiety and insecurity, as well as enhancing the possibility that even though innocent he may be found guilty.”

In addition to its primary function of safeguarding against governmental overreaching (see Justices of Boston Mun. Court v. Lydon [1984], 466 U.S. 294, 307, 104 S.Ct. 1805, 1812, 80 L.Ed.2d 311, 324), the double jeopardy guarantee protects a defendant’s “ ‘valued right to have his trial completed by a particular tribunal.’ ” Crist v. Bretz (1978), 437 U.S. 28, 36, 98 S.Ct. 2156, 2161, 57 L.Ed.2d 24, 31, quoting Wade v. Hunter (1949), 336 U.S. 684, 689, 69 S.Ct. 834, 837, 93 L.Ed. 974, 978. Once a tribunal has decided an issue of ultimate fact in the defendant’s favor, the double jeopardy doctrine also precludes a second jury from ever considering that same or identical issue in a later trial. Dowling v. United States (1990), 493 U.S. 342, 348, 110 S.Ct. 668, 672, 107 L.Ed.2d 708, 717.

Collateral estoppel is the doctrine that recognizes that a determination of facts litigated between two parties in a proceeding is binding on those parties in all future proceedings. Collateral estoppel “means simply that when an issue of ultimate fact has once been determined by a valid and final judgment, that issue cannot again be litigated between the same parties in any future lawsuit. Although first developed in civil litigation, collateral estoppel has been an established rule of federal criminal law at least since this Court’s decision more than 50 years ago in United States v. Oppenheimer (1916), 242 U.S. 85 [37 S.Ct. 68, 61 L.Ed. 161].” Ashe, supra, 397 U.S. at 443, 90 S.Ct. at 1194, 25 L.Ed.2d at [444]*444475. Collateral estoppel generally refers to the acquittal prong of double jeopardy.

However, the United States Supreme Court has held that double jeopardy does not apply to cases involving inconsistent verdicts and, by implication, hung juries. In Dunn v. United States (1932), 284 U.S. 390, 393, 52 S.Ct. 189, 190, 76 L.Ed. 356, 358-359, the United States Supreme Court found that consistency in a verdict was not required and that where offenses were separately charged in counts of a single indictment, even though the evidence was the same in support of each, an acquittal on one count could not be pleaded as res judicata as to the other. The court found that the sanctity of the jury verdict should be preserved and could not be upset by speculation or inquiry into such matters to resolve the inconsistency. The court stated: “ ‘The most that can be said in such cases is that the verdict shows that either in the acquittal or the conviction the jury did not speak their real conclusions, but that does not show that they were not convinced of the defendant’s guilt. We interpret the acquittal as no more than their assumption of a power which they had no right to exercise, but to which they were disposed through lenity.’ ” Id., quoting Steckler v. United States (C.A.2, 1925), 7 F.2d 59, 60.

This principle of law was further affirmed in United States v. Powell (1984), 469 U.S. 57, 105 S.Ct. 471, 83 L.Ed.2d 461, where a defendant was charged with using the telephone to facilitate crimes of conspiracy and drug possession, crimes that were alleged in the indictment separately from the telephone solicitation charge, a compound indictment. In that case, a jury found the defendant not guilty of possession or conspiracy, but guilty of telephone solicitation to distribute cocaine. Even though possession and conspiracy were predicate felonies, the United States Supreme Court still held that the inconsistent verdicts could not be overturned. The court refused to weaken the Dunn rule, finding that “a criminal defendant already is afforded sufficient protection against jury irrationality or error by the independent review of the sufficiency of the evidence undertaken by the trial and appellate courts.” Id. at 67, 105 S.Ct. at 478, 83 L.Ed.2d at 470. The court rejected attempts by the lower courts of appeals to carve out exceptions to the Dunn case, and rejected defendant’s -argument that the principles of res judicata or collateral estoppel should apply to verdicts rendered by a single jury where the jury acquitted the defendant of the predicate felony. The court held: “We believe that the Dunn rule rests on a sound rationale that is independent of its theories of res judicata, and that it therefore survives an attack based upon its presently erroneous reliance on such theories.” Id. at 64, 105 S.Ct. at 476, 83 L.Ed.2d at 468.

The court analyzed why inconsistent verdicts may work against the government as well as the defendant, and thus should not be used to grant the [445]*445defendant a windfall when one cannot know the basis of the jury’s conclusions. The court therefore decided that the jury verdicts must be accepted as they stand. To do otherwise is too speculative.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
683 N.E.2d 1112, 79 Ohio St. 3d 440, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-lovejoy-ohio-1997.