Case Name: STATE of Louisiana v. Edward T. HYNES
Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1984-11-26
Citations: 458 So. 2d 1303
Docket Number: No. 84-KA-1116
Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Edward T. HYNES.
Judges: 
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 458
Pages: 1303–1304

Head Matter:
STATE of Louisiana v. Edward T. HYNES.
No. 84-KA-1116.
Supreme Court of Louisiana.
Nov. 26, 1984.
William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Harry F. Con-nick, Dist. Atty., Theodore J. Johnson, William Campbell, Asst. Dist. Attys., for plaintiff-appellant.
Maurice Hattier, Dwight Doskey, Orleans Indigent Defender Program, New Orleans, for defendant-appellee.

Opinion:
CALOGERO, Justice.
The state has appealed from a district court judgment holding La.C.Cr.P. art. 493.1 unconstitutional. This is a companion case to State v. Johnson, 458 So.2d 1301 (La.1984), the cases having been consolidated for argument in this Court.
The legal issue and procedural posture in two cases are identical. In each the defendant has requested a jury trial because the cumulative penalty exposure he faces for the crimes with which he has been charged exceeds six months imprisonment. La. Const, art. I, § 17; State v. McCarroll, 337 So.2d 475 (La.1976). The state opposes the jury trial request, relying on La.C.Cr.P. art. 493.1. The trial court, relying on a ruling by the chief judge of that court in another case, State v. Odell, 458 So.2d 1304 (La.1984), effectively found the provision was unconstitutional. For the reasons assigned in the companion Johnson case, we hold that the lower court erred in its ruling.
Decree
The district court judgment holding that La.C.Cr.P. art. 493.1 is unconstitutional is reversed and the case is remanded to the district court for further proceedings consistent with the views expressed herein.
REVERSED; REMANDED..
. The charges, of course, are different. Defendant Hynes was charged in one information with three counts of battery on a police officer in violation of La.R.S. 14:34.2.