State v. Turner

429 P.2d 565, 247 Or. 301, 1967 Ore. LEXIS 476
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedJune 21, 1967
StatusPublished
Cited by76 cases

This text of 429 P.2d 565 (State v. Turner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon 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. Turner, 429 P.2d 565, 247 Or. 301, 1967 Ore. LEXIS 476 (Or. 1967).

Opinion

DENECKE, J.

The defendant was convicted of assault with intent to rob and was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. He appealed and his conviction was reversed for constitutional error committed at his trial. State v. Turner, 241 Or 105, 404 P2d 187 (1965). He was retried before a different judge, convicted and sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment with credit allowed for two years already served on the former sentence.

Defendant appeals solely upon the ground that the second trial court could not constitutionally impose a sentence longer than one amounting to five years’ imprisonment with credit for the two years served.

State v. Froembling, 237 Or 616, 391 P2d 390, cert den 379 US 937, 85 S Ct 339, 13 L ed2d 347 (1964), and Froembling v. Gladden, 244 Or 314, 417 P2d 1020 (1966), concern this general problem. In February, *303 1958, Froembling was sentenced to life and to three terms of ten years each. All sentences were to rnn concurrently. On post-conviction the life sentence was held void. In May, 1963, Froembling was re-sentenced to 15 years, such period to commence after the three 10-year concurrent sentences were served. No credit on the 15-year sentence was given for the five years served.

The same judge imposed both sentences. The trial court stated that if it had known at the original sentencing that a life sentence could not be imposed it would have ordered that the sentences would run consecutively.

The essence of our decision is: “Here the error in the original proceeding consisted of imposing the wrong sentence for the crime charged. When that is the case the trial judge must change the sentence to correct the error and he must exercise his discretion anew in arriving at what he considers an appropriate sentence.” 237 Or at 619.

We observed, however: “We recognize that there are circumstances in which it would be mandatory upon the trial court in resentencing to give credit for time served, but this is not such a case.” 237 Or at 619.

In the post-conviction proceeding Froembling contended that the resentencing violated his right not to be placed in double jeopardy. We held: “When, on resentencing, defendant receives no greater sentence than he could have been subjected to had there been no error in the original sentence, he has not been placed in double jeopardy.” 244 Or at 316, 417 P2d at 1021-1022.

The Froembling cases are distinguishable both upon their facts and their rationale. The sentencing court upon resentencing did not reassess the nature *304 of the sentence appropriate for the case. It remained of the mind that a life sentence was approriate; however, when -it found, that life was unauthorized, the court gave as long a sentence as was authorized.

Froembling was not prejudiced by his post-conviction petition or appeals. As a result of such proceedings he reduced the time he must serve to a total of 25 years rather than life. Forty-five years is apparently what the trial court would have originally sentenced if it had known that a life sentence was unauthorized.

Likewise, our early decision in State v. Steeves, 29 Or 85, 43 P 947 (1896), concerned a problem similar to the present question but not the precise question. There, the defendant was indicted for first-degree murder and found guilty of manslaughter. We held: “ [A] conviction of a lower degree necessarily included within an indictment charging the commission of a greater crime, operates as an acquittal of all the degrees above it, and that a new trial, in the absence of a statute declaring the effect of a reversal of the judgment, must be confined to a retrial of the charge upon which the accused was convicted, or of a lower degree.” 29 Or at 111.

The discussion in that ease commences with the quotation of Oregon’s constitutional provision prohibiting double jeopardy (29 Or at 107), but it is uncertain whether the decision is based upon constitutional grounds or establishes a rule of criminal practice. The above quotation states the rule, “in the absence of a statute.” That latter phrase indicates the basis of the decision is not constitutional.

Green v. United States, 355 US 184, 78 S Ct 221, 2 L ed2d 199 (1957), 61 ALR2d 1119, was an appeal from a federal conviction and, in essence, applied the *305 same principle as this court did in State v. Steeves, supra (29 Or 85). Green v. United States, supra, however, was decided squarely upon the federal constitutional prohibition of double jeopardy.

These two later decisions, as we above stated, are not controlling as their rationale is based upon two offenses, carrying two different maximum punishments, whereas, the present problem relates to only one offense with two different sentences imposed.

We are also of the opinion that the decisions from other jurisdictions in which a defendant was convicted of murder, given life, granted a new trial, again convicted, and then sentenced to death, are also not completely analogous. Oregon has not had a case involving such facts. People v. Henderson, 60 Cal2d 482, 35 Cal Rptr 77, 386 P2d 677 (1963), does have such facts.

The California court held the defendant could not be sentenced to death upon retrial because such procedure would be in violation of Calif ornia’s constitutional prohibition of double jeopardy. The court believed the reasoning of Green v. United States, supra, was applicable and persuasive. Mr. Justice Traynor stated: “It is immaterial to the basic purpose of the constitutional provision against double jeopardy whether the Legislature divides a crime into different degrees carrying different punishments or allows the court or jury to fix different punishments for the same crime.” 386 P2d at 686.

The California court further reasoned: “A defendant’s right to appeal from an erroneous judgment is unreasonably impaired when he is required to risk his life to invoke that right. Since the state has no interest in preserving erroneous judgments, it has no interest in foreclosing appeals therefrom by imposing unrea *306 sonable conditions on the right to appeal.” 386 P2d at 686.

The dissent points out that a majority of the jurisdictions deciding this question has held to the contrary. 386 P2d at 686. Annotation, 12 ALR3d 978, “Propriety of Increased Punishment on New Trial for Same Offense” (1967).

The application of the principle of double jeopardy to the circumstances present in People v. Henderson, supra (60 Cal2d 482), appears to us to be questionable.

The recent decision of Cichos v. State of Indiana, 385 US 76, 87 S Ct 271, 17 L ed2d 175 (1966), seems to have determined in a noncapital case that a second harsher sentence is not a violation of the double jeopardy provision of the federal constitution.

In that case the defendant was initially convicted under a two-count affidavit charging reckless homicide and involuntary manslaughter.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
429 P.2d 565, 247 Or. 301, 1967 Ore. LEXIS 476, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-turner-or-1967.