Case Name: STATE of Louisiana, Appellee, v. James MARTIN, Appellant
Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1977-10-10
Citations: 351 So. 2d 92
Docket Number: No. 59283
Parties: STATE of Louisiana, Appellee, v. James MARTIN, Appellant.
Judges: SUMMERS, J., dissents and assigns reasons.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 351
Pages: 92–95

Head Matter:
STATE of Louisiana, Appellee, v. James MARTIN, Appellant.
No. 59283.
Supreme Court of Louisiana.
Oct. 10, 1977.
L. Howard McCurdy, Orleans Indigent Defender Program, New Orleans, for defendant-appellant.
William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Harry F. Con-nick, Dist. Atty., Charles Brandt, Asst. Dist. Atty., for plaintiff-appellee.

Opinion:
TATE, Justice.
The defendant was convicted of simple burglary, La.R.S. 14:62, and sentenced, as a multiple offender, La.R.S. 15:529.1, to eighteen years at hard labor. The accused's conviction and sentence must be reversed on appeal, however, because there is merit to his assignment of error number 1.
By this assignment, the accused complains of the trial court's failure to grant his request that the jury be instructed that a responsive verdict to the crime charged was "attempted simple burglary."
The trial judge instructed the jury that the only responsive verdicts to the charge ("simple burglary") were "guilty" or "not guilty". At the time of the offense (August 12, 1975), these indeed were the responsive verdicts for the crime provided by La.C.Cr.P. art. 814 (as last previously amended in 1973).
However, prior to the date of the trial (November 19, 1975), certain 1975 amendments to Article 814 were in effect. By one of these (Act 335), an additional responsive verdict of "attempted simple burglary" was provided for a charge of "simple burglary."
The state argues that the responsive verdicts applicable to the crime at the time of the offense govern, not the responsive verdicts provided by legislative amendment in effect at the time of the trial. The trial court was in error in acceding to this argument.
At the time this case was tried, the procedural law provided that "guilty of attempted simple burglary" was a responsive verdict to the crime charged. La.C.Cr.P. art. 814(41) (as amended by Act 335 of 1975). The accused was entitled to have the jury so instructed, as he requested, in accordance with the amendment to Article 814 of the Louisiana Code of Criminal Procedure in effect at the time of the trial.
The amendment providing for different responsive verdicts is a procedural change. Therefore, under well settled principles, the responsive verdicts provided by the procedural law in effect at the time of this trial applied, not those provided by the prior procedural law as it had existed at the time of the crime. We squarely so held in State v. Williams, 216 La. 419, 43 So.2d 780 (1950), applying established jurisprudence, and have never deviated from this holding.
In urging us to refuse to apply this well-settled principle, the state points out that one of the amendments to Article 814 (responsive verdicts), namely that enacted by Act 126 of 1973, specifically provided that this reenactment did "not apply to particular responsive verdicts for crimes committed before the effective date of this Act"; to the contrary, these were to "be governed by the law existing at the time the crime was committed." Section 2. Because this 1973 act (a general revision of Article 814) so provided, the state infers a general principle of non-retroactivity as to subsequent amendments provided for different responsive verdicts.
We cannot find any such suggested legislative intent.
While (for whatever reason) the legislature did provide for non-retroactivity as to the procedural changes made by the 1973 act, it did not do so in any of its subsequent amendments of Article 814, which changed the responsive verdicts as to particular crimes.
Each of these enactments amended the responsive verdicts as to a particular crime or crimes, and each of these subsequent amendments repealed all prior laws in conflict therewith: Act 334 of 1975 (aggravated rape); Act 335 of 1975 (simple burglary; the present enactment); Act 336 of 1975 (various narcotic offenses); and Act 85 of 1976 (theft and attempted theft).
The general principle is that changes in criminal procedures apply to trials conducted subsequent to the date of the procedural amendments, not the procedural law in effect at the date of the crime. We find no reason here presented to deviate from this accepted rule.
One practical reason for the principle is to provide for uniform procedures as to trials conducted after the effective date of the procedural amendments. A contrary principle, if applicable, will result in the inefficiency and fragmentation of procedural law required, should it be necessary in the trial of each particular prosecution to ascertain whether the procedural law in all its facets at the time of the trial differed at the time of the crime. A contrary principle would require different procedural rules for trials held at the same criminal session, depending upon the greatly varying dates of the respective crimes prosecuted.
We find no legislative intent to provide an exception in the instance of responsive verdicts to the general principle that procedural changes apply to trials conducted subsequent to their enactment. Accordingly, we find merit to the defendant's assignment of error no. 1, by which he complains of the trial court's refusal to instruct the jury, in accordance with applicable law, as to the responsive verdicts it could return upon the charge for which the accused was tried.
For the reasons assigned, the conviction and sentence must be reversed, and the case remanded for a new trial in accordance with law.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.
SUMMERS, J., dissents and assigns reasons.
SANDERS, C. J., dissents for the reasons assigned by SUMMERS, J.