Sumpter v. State

340 N.E.2d 764, 264 Ind. 117, 1976 Ind. LEXIS 439
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 28, 1976
Docket575S130
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 340 N.E.2d 764 (Sumpter v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sumpter v. State, 340 N.E.2d 764, 264 Ind. 117, 1976 Ind. LEXIS 439 (Ind. 1976).

Opinions

Hunter, J.

Appellant was convicted after jury trial of living in a house of ill fame.1 On appeal, this conviction was reversed because the record contained “. . . no direct evidence of appellant’s sex. . . .” Sumpter v. State, (1973) Ind. App., 296 N.E.2d 131, 133. We accepted the state’s petition to transfer the matter to this Court and modified the Indiana common law rule on proof of sex to provide that trial courts may take judicial notice of a defendant’s sex. Sumpter v. State, (1974) 261 Ind. 471, 306 N.E.2d 95. The effect of such notice is the creation of a rebuttable presumption sufficient to establish a prima facie case where the defendant “fails to produce any competent evidence to the contrary.” Id., at 99. Upon review of the other questions presented by appellant, we affirmed the conviction but remanded the cause to the trial court “for determination of the defendant’s sex pursuant to the procedures set out herein.” Id., at 104.

On remand appellant objected to being retried upon the issue of sex, contending that the procedure announced in our opinion ran afoul of various state and federal constitutional provisions. The motion was overruled and a hearing was held before the trial court. The hearing commenced with the trial court taking judicial notice that appellant was a female person. Appellant rejoined by offering into evidence [119]*119selected portions of a medical treatise describing various genetic and pathological conditions which make it difficult (if not impossible) to determine an affected individual’s sex by external physical observation. Finding this evidence insufficient to rebut the presumption, the trial court entered judgment. Thereafter, appellant filed a motion to modify the judgment, which was overruled. Appellant filed a motion to correct errors assigning as error the overruling of all prior motions. From the overruling of the motion to correct errors appellant appealed to the Court of Appeals. Since the appeal arises from our remand, the Court of Appeals transferred the case directly to us.

I.

We first address appellant’s claim that the effect of the remand was to place appellant twice in jeopardy in violation of federal and state constitutional guarantees. There is no doubt that the proceedings on remand were “devoted to the resolution of factual issues going to the elements of the offense charged,” and therefore at odds with the constitutional policy against multiple trials. See e.g., United States v. Jenkins, (1975) 420 U.S. 358, 95 S.Ct. 1006, 43 L.E.2d 250.

The contour of the federal double jeopardy provision is not so symmetrical as to exclude all conflicts, however. While exceptions to the ban on repeated attempts to convict “have been only grudgingly allowed,” see United States v. Wilson, (1975) 420 U.S. 332, 95 S.Ct. 1013, 43 L.Ed.2d 232, some do obtain. When a defendant who has been adjudged guilty wins reversal of an unsatisfied conviction, the Double Jeopardy Clause does not bar his retrial.2 [120]*120United States v. Ball, (1896) 163 U.S. 662, 16 S.Ct. 1192, 41 L.Ed. 300; Bryan v. United States, (1950) 338 U.S. 552, 70 S.Ct. 317, 94 L.Ed. 335; United States v. Tateo, (1964) 377 U.S. 463, 84 S.Ct. 1587, 12 L.Ed.2d 448; United States v. Ewell, (1966) 383 U.S. 116, 86 S.Ct. 773, 15 L.Ed.2d 627; North Carolina v. Pearce, (1969) 395 U.S. 711, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 23 L.Ed.2d 656; Chaffin v. Stynchcombe, (1973) 412 U.S. 17, 93 S.Ct. 1977, 36 L.Ed.2d 714.

The rationalization of this exception was traveled under the labels of “consent,” “waiver,” and “continuing jeopardy.” These verbalizations have recently been criticized by the United States Supreme Court. See e.g., Breed v. Jones, (1975) 421 U.S. 519, 95 S.Ct. 1779, 44 L.Ed.2d 346, 358; United States v. Wilson, supra, n. 11; North Carolina v. Pearce, supra, n. 18. The necessity for such an exception continues, however, and its explanation currently lies “in an analysis of the respective interests involved,” see Breed v. Jones, supra. Those interests are brought sharply into focus by comparing Mr. Justice Brennan’s statement in his concurring opinion in Ashe v. Swenson, (1970) 397 U.S. 436, 459, 90 S.Ct. 1189, 25 L.Ed.2d 469, 484, “One must experience a sense of uneasiness with [121]*121any double jeopardy standard that would allow the state this second chance to plug up the holes in its case,” with Mr. Justice Harlan’s statement in United States v. Jorn, (1970) 400 U.S. 470, 483-84, 91 S.Ct. 547, 556, 27 L.Ed.2d 543, 556, “Certainly it is clear beyond question that the Double Jeopardy Clause does not guarantee a defendant that the Government will be prepared, in all circumstances, to vindicate the social interest in law enforcement through the vehicle of a single proceeding for a given offense.”

Neither federal nor state double jeopardy provisions barred the remand of appellant’s cause.

II.

Before the hearing on remand, appellant objected to being tried, asserting that a hearing before the bench alone would violate appellant’s constitutional right to trial by jury. The wording of the objection and the trial court’s action in overruling the motion suggest that the parties and the court approached the question of appellant’s right to a jury trial firmly convinced that our mandate denied such right. It did not. We believe the parties reached this erroneous conclusion from an inadequate understanding of the function of judicial notice in the case a bar. To the extent that our opinion failed to elucidate the relevant considerations for the parties’ guidance in this matter, we confess error. Because the presumption was not rebutted, however, there was no need for jury trial on the issue of appellant’s sex.

Judicial notice of adjudicative facts3 was initially permitted only in situations where “the fact is so commonly known in the community as to make it unprofitable to require proof, and so certainly known as to make it indisputable among reasonable men.” McCormick, McCORMICK ON EVIDENCE [122]*122§ 329 (2d ed. 1972). When so applied, judicial notice operates as a matter of law, whether the case be tried with or without a jury. There can be no issue of fact where the noticed matter is unquestionably true.

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Sumpter v. State
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Bluebook (online)
340 N.E.2d 764, 264 Ind. 117, 1976 Ind. LEXIS 439, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sumpter-v-state-ind-1976.