Thomas v. State

548 S.W.2d 564, 1977 Mo. LEXIS 271
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedApril 11, 1977
DocketNo. 59617
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 548 S.W.2d 564 (Thomas v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Thomas v. State, 548 S.W.2d 564, 1977 Mo. LEXIS 271 (Mo. 1977).

Opinion

DONNELLY, Judge.

Appellant, Allen Thomas, was convicted of robbery in the first degree by means of a dangerous and deadly weapon by a jury in the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis and his punishment was assessed at imprisonment for a term of fifteen years. Following rendition of judgment and imposition of sentence, an appeal was taken to the St. Louis District of the Court of Appeals where the judgment of conviction was affirmed. State v. Thomas, 530 S.W.2d 265 (Mo.App.1975).

[565]*565On February 11, 1976, appellant filed a motion to vacate under Rule 27.26 in the Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis. Among the points raised in the motion to vacate was that appellant “was subjected to double jeopardy when he received an instruction from the Court on felony-murder and the court erroneously allowed the jury * * * to consider a verdict of robbery along with the felony-murder.”

On April 26, 1976, the motion to vacate was overruled and an appeal was taken to this Court.

This Court does not have jurisdiction of this case under Art. V, § 3, Const, of Missouri. We retain and decide the case under authority of Art. V, § 10, Const, of Missouri, for the reasons stated in Foremost-McKesson, Inc. v. Davis, 488 S.W.2d 193, 196 (Mo.banc 1972).

On appeal, appellant complains that the “trial court * * * gave separate instructions on felony murder and robbery. The jury was instructed to consider the alleged robbery in the murder instruction and again in the separate robbery instruction. Appellant was thereby subjected to double jeopardy in violation of the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution and of Art. I, Section 19 of the Missouri Constitution.”

The instructions referred to were as follows:

“INSTRUCTION NO. 4
“As to Count I, if you find and believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt:
“First, that on or about January 26,1974, in the City of St. Louis, State of Missouri, the defendant, Cleveland Owens and Myrtle Marie Poe caused the death of Edgar C. Clark by stabbing him, and “Second, that he did so in robbing Edgar C. Clark,
“Third, that the defendant knowingly and with common purpose acted together with Cleveland Owens and Myrtle Marie Poe who engaged in the conduct submitted in the above paragraphs,
then you will find the defendant guilty under Count I of murder in the first degree in connection with robbery.
“However, if you do not find and believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt each and all of the foregoing, you must find the defendant not guilty under Count I of that offense. ‘Robbery’ is the unlawful taking of the property of another from his person or in his presence and against his will either by the use of violence to the person of the possessor of such property with intent to steal or by putting him in fear of immediate injury to his person with intent to steal.
“INSTRUCTION NO. 5 “As to Count II, if you find and believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt:
“First, that on or about January 26,1974, in the City of St. Louis, State of Missouri, Edgar C. Clark owned clothes and two radios, and
“Second, that at that time and place the defendant, Cleveland Owens and Myrtle Marie Poe, by means of a deadly and dangerous weapon, took the property from Edgar C. Clark against his will by causing him to fear immediate injury to his person, and
“Third, that the defendant, Cleveland Owens and Myrtle Marie Poe, took the property with the intent to permanently deprive Edgar C. Clark of the property and to convert it or any part of it to his own use,
“Fourth, that the defendant knowingly and with common purpose acted together with Cleveland Owens and Myrtle Marie Poe who engaged in the conduct submitted in the above paragraphs,
then you will find the defendant guilty under Count II of robbery in the first degree by means of a deadly and dangerous weapon.
“However, if you do not find and believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt each and all of the foregoing, you must find the defendant not guilty of that offense.”

[566]*566Article I, § 19 of the Constitution of Missouri provides that no person shall “be put again in jeopardy of life or liberty for the same offense, after being once acquitted by a jury * * The Fifth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States provides that no person shall “be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb * * *.”

The essential question, as to both Constitutions, is whether murder committed in the perpetration of robbery is the same offense as robbery.

In Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 303, 304, 52 S.Ct. 180, 182, 76 L.Ed. 306 (1932), the indictment under the Harrison Narcotic Act contained, with others, a count which charged a sale of eight grains of the drug not in or from the original stamped package and a count which charged the same sale as having been made not in pursuance of a written order of the purchaser as required by statute. The Court held that two distinct statutory offenses were committed by the single sale and said:

“Two. Section 1 of the Narcotic Act creates the offense of selling any of the forbidden drugs except in or from the original stamped package; and § 2 creates the offense of selling any of such drugs not in pursuance of a written order of the person to whom the drug is sold. Thus, upon the face of the statute, two distinct offenses are created. Here there was but one sale, and the question is whether, both sections being violated by the same act, the accused committed two offenses or only one.
“The statute is not aimed at sales of the forbidden drugs qua sales, a matter entirely beyond the authority of Congress, but at sales of such drugs in violation of the requirements set forth in §§ 1 and 2, enacted as aids to the enforcement of the stamp tax imposed by the act. See Alston v. United States, 274 U.S. 289, 294, 47 S.Ct. 634, 71 L.Ed. 1052; Nigro v. United States, 276 U.S. 332, 341, 345, 351, 48 S.Ct. 388, 72 L.Ed. 600.
“Each of the offenses created requires proof of a different element. The applicable rule is that where the same act or transaction constitutes a violation1 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 a fact which the other does not. Gavieres v. United States, 220 U.S. 338, 342, 31 S.Ct. 421, 55 L.Ed. 489, and authorities cited. In that ease this court quoted from and adopted the language of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts in Morey v. Commonwealth, 108 Mass.

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752 S.W.2d 933 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1988)
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666 S.W.2d 11 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1984)
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Bluebook (online)
548 S.W.2d 564, 1977 Mo. LEXIS 271, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thomas-v-state-mo-1977.