State v. Poston

399 P.3d 488, 285 Or. App. 750, 2017 Ore. App. LEXIS 702
Court of Appeals of Oregon·Decided June 1, 2017·No. 120431530; A152933·Published·Cited by 28 cases

Opinion

ARMSTRONG, P. J.

The state has petitioned for reconsideration of our decision in this case in which we held that ORS 132.560 requires the state to allege in a charging instrument the basis for joinder of the crimes charged in it. State v. Poston, 277 Or App 137, 144-45, 370 P3d 904 (2016). It contends that we erred in our construction of the statute and in our disposition of the case. We grant the state’s petition but adhere to our decision on reconsideration.

As we recognized in our original opinion, ORS 132.560 specifies the grounds on which charges may be joined in a charging instrument. The requirements that the statute imposes for joinder, in turn, are enforceable by demurrer under ORS 135.630(2), which tests whether an indictment shows on its face that the joinder requirements have been met. Taken together, those provisions specify what the state must allege in an indictment to show that the charges contained in it have been lawfully joined.

In that light, we readily reject the state’s contention on reconsideration that we misunderstood State v. Huennekens, 245 Or 150, 420 P2d 384 (1966). The court held in Huennekens that an indictment that joined rape and sodomy charges against the defendant survived a demurrer because the indictment alleged that the charges were part of the same act and transaction, which is one of the grounds in ORS 132.560 under which charges can be joined. See id. at 154. In the state’s view, Huennekens established that an allegation that shows that the joinder requirements have been met is sufficient to show that the charges have been lawfully joined under ORS 132.560, but the case did not establish that such an allegation is necessary to show that the charges have been lawfully joined.

The state’s argument ignores that the legislature made ORS 132.560—the statute that specifies the grounds under which charges may lawfully be joined—a statute that is subject to challenge by demurrer under ORS 135.630(2). The demurrer statute, in turn, serves to test whether an indictment shows on its face that it conforms with the requirements of the statutes that are subject to challenge by demurrer. See ORS 135.630(2); State v. Molver, 233 Or [752] App 239, 243-49, 225 P3d 136, rev den, 348 Or 291 (2010). An indictment that is silent on whether the requirements for joinder specified in ORS 132.560 have been met cannot be said to be one that shows on its face that it conforms with those requirements.

As Huennekens held, one way to show compliance with the joinder statute is to include in the indictment the applicable statutory language that authorizes the state to join the charges in a single charging instrument. As we recognized in our original opinion, another way to do that is to allege facts in the indictment sufficient to establish compliance with the joinder statute. Poston, 277 Or App at 145-46. However, as we held, an indictment that does neither of those things is not one that shows on its face that the charges in it have been lawfully joined and, hence, is an indictment that can be successfully challenged by demurrer.

The state also contends that we erred in our understanding of the federal rule that the Oregon legislature emulated when it amended ORS 132.560 in 1989, FRCrP 8. In construing the 1989 amendment, we relied on federal cases that predated the amendment, which we understood to have established that the government is required to allege in the charging instrument the basis on which the charges have been lawfully joined. Poston, 277 Or App at 144. According to the state, we erred in relying on the cited cases for that principle because the cases involved the propriety of joinder under FRCrP 8(b)—which governs the joinder of defendants—and not the propriety of joinder under FRCrP 8(a)—which governs the joinder of charges. In its view, the federal courts have distinguished between FRCrP 8(a) and FRCrP 8(b) regarding the pleading requirements that they impose, and we erred in failing to recognize that distinction.

Although the cases on which we relied that predated the 1989 amendment happened to have involved join-der under FRCrP 8(b) rather than under FRCrP 8(a), the principle that the cases established—viz., that the propriety of joinder is determined by the allegations in the charging instrument—was not limited to FRCrP 8(b) and did not turn on the language of that rule. The cases based their discussion of the pleading requirement for joinder on FRCrP 8, [753] that is, on the rule that governs joinder, and not on the specific requirements of either of the subdivisions of the rule. See United States v. Lane, 474 US 438, 447, 106 S Ct 725, 88 L Ed 2d 814 (1986); United States v. Harrelson, 754 F2d 1153, 1176 (5th Cir), cert den, 474 US 908, 1034 (1985); United States v. Bledsoe, 674 F2d 647, 655 (8th Cir), cert den, 459 US 1040 (1982).

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State v. Poston, 399 P.3d 488, 285 Or. App. 750, 2017 Ore. App. LEXIS 702 (Or. Ct. App. 2017).

399 P.3d 488 (State v. Poston) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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