State v. Shearer

201 N.W.2d 180, 86 S.D. 711, 1972 S.D. LEXIS 165
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 6, 1972
DocketFile 10914
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 201 N.W.2d 180 (State v. Shearer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota 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. Shearer, 201 N.W.2d 180, 86 S.D. 711, 1972 S.D. LEXIS 165 (S.D. 1972).

Opinion

WINANS, Judge.

The defendant was convicted of a sale of a narcotic drug, namely, marijuana. The information charged that on the 26th day of March, 1970, in the county of Davison, South Dakota, the defendant "then and there did willfully, wrongfully and unlawfully sell a narcotic drug, or preparation containing a narcotic drug; namely, marijuana; contrary to the form of the Statute * * There is no question about a sale having been made,. The defendant admits it.

The defendant first interposed a demurrer to the information upon the grounds that it did not describe a public offense, in that "it alleges an offense under the provisions of Chapter 94 of Session Laws of 1968 and which said chapter is entitled An Act Entitled, An Act defining and relating to narcotic drugs and repealing-chapter 22.13 of the South Dakota Code and all acts amendatory ihereof."

The assignments of error, as well as the demurrer, assert the following points relative to the act being in violation of the Constitution of the state of South Dakota. Briefly stated, these contentions are:

I. (1) That said Ch. 94 is in violation of the provisions of § 21, Art. Ill of the Constitution's requirement that no law shall embrace more than one subject, which shall be expressed in its title. It is defendant's contention that the title of the legisla *714 tive act does not indicate the act "contains any * * * regulation, penal provisions, or any penalties."
(2) That the title is defective and violative of § 21, Art. Ill of the Constitution in that it purports to deal with narcotic drugs and contains in addition provisions with respect to marijuana, which is not a narcotic drug.
(3) That § 1(10) (d) delegates to the Secretary of the Treasury of the United States or his delegate legislative powers including the power to change the list of certain drugs, thereby changing the statute, all in violation of Art. Ill, § 1 of the Constitution of South Dakota.
(4) That § 17 of Ch. 94 delegates legislative powers to the Division of Criminal Investigation without furnishing guidelines for the exercise of the power, thereby violating Art. Ill, § 1 of the Constitution.

In addition to the above assignments of error the defendant makes the following assignments predicated upon the trial itself:

II. That the court erred in overruling the defendant's motion for a mistrial when the state introduced evidence before a jury of another alleged buy of marijuana from a person other than the defendant.

III. That the court erred in denying defendant's motion for a mistrial on grounds that adverse publicity was given to the defendant by radio station KORN in a noon-hour broadcast during the course of the trial and immediately following testimony referred to in Assignment 2 above, wherein the news report stated the defendant was charged with one felony count of distributing marijuana and two misdemeanor counts of possession of marijuana, the possession charges being extremely prejudicial because of the state's testimony above referred to.

*715 IV. That the court erred in overruling defendant's motion for a directed verdict based upon defendant's contention that he was the victim of entrapment by the officials of the state and their undercover agent.

Defendant's first contentions are that the title to the act does not indicate that the act "contains any * * * regulation, penal provisions, or any penalties" and also that the title is defective because the act contains provisions with respect to marijuana which it is claimed is not a narcotic drug. This Court held in State v. Williams, 84 S.D. 547, 173 N.W.2d 889, "It will be presumed that the legislature inquired whether there was a reasonable or sound basis for the classification and acted advisedly. State v. Nuss, 79 S.D. 522, 114 N.W.2d 633." Later in Application of Williams, 86 S.D. 208, 193 N.W.2d 793, in speaking of State v. Williams, supra, we held, "What counsel did at the trial (Williams trial) was to move to dismiss both counts of the information upon the grounds that 'marijuana is not a narcotic drug; that possession of and the selling of marijuana * * * would not constitute a violation of Chapter 94 of the Session Laws of 1968 as alleged in the information.' Such contentions were decided adversely to the defendant in State v. Williams, supra."

Chapter 94, Laws of 1968, defines narcotic drug as follows:

"(10) 'Narcotic drug' means any of the following except decocainized coca leaves or extracts of coca leaves, which extracts do not contain cocaine or ecgonine, whether produced directly or indirectly by extraction from substances of vegetable origin, or independently by means of chemical synthesis, or by a combination of extraction and chemical synthesis:
(c) 'Marihuana' which includes all parts of the plant Cannabis sativa L., whether growing or not; the seeds thereof; the resin extracted from any part of such plant; and every compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture or preparation of such plant, its *716 seeds or resin; but shall not include the mature stalks oí such plant, fiber produced from such stalks, oil, or cake made from the seeds of such plant, any other compound, manufacture, salt, derivative, mixture or preparation of such mature stalks, except the resin extracted therefrom, fiber, oil or cake, or the sterilized seed of such plant which is incapable of germination; * *

The Supreme Court of New Mexico in State v. Romero, 74 N.M. 642, 397 P.2d 26, held that marijuana under their definition was a narcotic drug. Their statute defined narcotic drugs as follows: " '(15) "Narcotic drugs" means coca leaves, opium, and cannabis, and every substance neither chemically nor physically distinguishable from them/ " The information in that case charged the defendant with having in his possession certain narcotic drugs, to-wit: "cannabis indica, also known as marijuana."

In State of Delaware v. Miller, 11 Terry 286, 50 Del.Super. 286, 129 A.2d 548, the defendant was charged with the crime of having in his possession marijuana cigarettes. The defendant contended that the statute failed to define marijuana and that "since it is a plant in part harmless and in part narcotic, the Information which describes the cigarettes merely as marijuana cigarettes fails to specify possession of a narcotic with certainty." The court held:

"Defendant's argument is not wholly without merit for, as he contends, if marijuana is a term sometimes applied to the hemp plant and sometimes only to describe the flowering tops which have a definite narcotic quality, then an Information charging defendant with the possession of marijuana fails to specify the possession of a narcotic with that particularity demanded by

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Bluebook (online)
201 N.W.2d 180, 86 S.D. 711, 1972 S.D. LEXIS 165, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-shearer-sd-1972.