State v. Ramirez

265 N.W.2d 274, 83 Wis. 2d 150, 1978 Wisc. LEXIS 980
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedMay 2, 1978
Docket77-232-CR
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 265 N.W.2d 274 (State v. Ramirez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin 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. Ramirez, 265 N.W.2d 274, 83 Wis. 2d 150, 1978 Wisc. LEXIS 980 (Wis. 1978).

Opinion

BEILFUSS, C. J.

The question before us is whether a prosecution based upon a state statute should be barred as a violation of constitutional double jeopardy provisions because of a plea of guilty to violations of a municipal ordinance, both prosecutions arising from the same transaction.

On March 28, 1977, a criminal complaint was filed. It alleged that Teresa A. Ramirez had entered McCullough’s Drug Store in Lake Geneva on March 26, 1977, and was observed placing something in one of two handbags. An employee noticed that several figurines were missing from a display case. She left the store and was followed by an employee. When she noticed her pursuer she threw one of the handbags and ran. She was captured and held for the police. Several of the figurines in the thrown handbag were damaged. Several other figurines were found in the other handbag.

At the hearing held April 13, 1977, Ramirez was found indigent and counsel was appointed. An information was filed, after a preliminary hearing, charging Ramirez with *152 shoplifting in violation of sec. 943.50(1) and (4) (b), Stats., on May 24, 1977. On June 13, 1977, Ramirez filed a motion to dismiss the information alleging that it placed her in double jeopardy contrary to the Wisconsin and United States Constitutions. An affidavit accompanying the motion averred that Ramirez had also been charged with two violations of the City of Lake Geneva Ordinances 41.015 and 41.29 — criminal damage to property and resisting or obstructing an officer. The affidavit stated that these charges arose out of the same incident at McCullough’s Drug Store and that on April 7, 1977, Ramirez pleaded guilty to both counts. She was ordered to pay a forfeiture to the City of Lake Geneva and make restitution to McCullough’s for the damage.

The trial court granted defendant’s motion and dismissed the information.

The writ of error was issued on September 8,1977.

The trial court, in granting the motion, relied heavily on Waller v. Florida, 397 U.S. 387 (1970). Reliance on Waller was proper and necessary to refute the argument that there could not be double jeopardy because one prosecution was dependent on a state statute and triable in a state court, whereas the other prosecution was based upon a municipal ordinance and triable in a municipal court. This theory was based upon the concept that the same act could not be an offense against two separate governments. Waller, quoting Reynolds v. Sims, 377 U.S. 533, 575 (1964), is contrary:

“ ‘Political subdivisions of States — counties, cities, or whatever — never were and never have been considered as sovereign entities. Rather, they have been traditionally regarded as subordinate governmental instrumentalities created by the State to assist in the carrying out of state governmental functions.’ ”

Here, too, Lake Geneva is not a separate sovereign; it is subordinate to the state and dependent upon the state *153 for its authority to enact ordinances and to create a municipal court. There is only one sovereign in the state and that is the state government. If the state grants to its subordinate municipalities the right to enact penal-type ordinances triable in a municipal court, it has the duty to correlate the prosecutions so as not to offend the constitutional double jeopardy provisions. In a nut shell, a prosecution for an offense based upon a state statute bars a prosecution for the same offense based upon the same identical acts in a municipal court on a municipal ordinance and vice versa.

Waller, however, was closely limited to its facts as revealed by the record. The opinion states:

“We decide only that the Florida courts were in error to the extent of holding that—
“ ‘even if a person has been tried in a municipal court for the identical offense with which he is charged in a state court, this would not be a bar to the prosecution of such person in the proper state court.’ ” (Emphasis supplied.) Waller v. Florida, 387 U.S. at 395.

The ban on double jeopardy is found in the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, and in art. I, sec. 8 of the Wisconsin Constitution.

“The Double Jeopardy Clause ‘protects against a second prosecution for the same offense after acquittal. It protects against a second prosecution for the same offense after conviction. And it protects against multiple punishments for the same offense.’ North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 717, 89 S. Ct. 2072, 2076, 23 L. Ed.2d 656 (1969).” Brown v. Ohio, 429 U.S. 997, 97 S. Ct. 2221, 2225 (1977).

The generally accepted test for analyzing double jeopardy is known as the “same evidence test.” First set forth in the English case of The King v. Vandercomb, 2 Leach 708, 720, 168 Eng. Rep. 455, 461 (Crown 1796), the “same evidence test” was recently restated by the *154 United States Supreme Court in Brown v. Ohio, supra, 97 S. Ct. at 2225:

“The established test for determining whether two offenses are sufficiently distinguishable to permit the imposition of cumulative punishment was stated in Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 304, 52 S. Ct. 180, 182, 76 L. Ed. 306 (1932) :
“ ‘The applicable rule is that where the same act or transaction constitutes a violation of two distinct statutory provisions, the test to be applied to determine whether there are two offenses or only one, is whether each provision requires proof of an additional fact which the other does not. . . .’

This test emphasizes the elements of the two crimes. ‘If each requires proof that the other does not, the Block-burger test would be satisfied, notwithstanding a substantial overlap in the proof offered to establish the crimes. . . .’ Iannelli v. United States, 420 U.S. 770, 785 n. 17, 95 S. Ct. 1284, 1294, 43 L. Ed.2d 616 (1975).”

The Wisconsin test, which requires that the offenses be the same in law and in fact, is a form of “the same evidence rule.” State v. Van Meter, 72 Wis.2d 754, 757, 758, 242 N.W.2d 206 (1976); State v. George, 69 Wis.2d 92, 98, 230 N.W.2d 253 (1975). Sec. 939.71, Stats., 1 codifies this rule.

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Bluebook (online)
265 N.W.2d 274, 83 Wis. 2d 150, 1978 Wisc. LEXIS 980, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-ramirez-wis-1978.