Case Name: STATE of Louisiana v. Ramond EAMES
Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1978-12-27
Citations: 365 So. 2d 1361
Docket Number: No. 61699
Parties: STATE of Louisiana v. Ramond EAMES.
Judges: DENNIS, J., concurs in the decree and assigns reasons.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 365
Pages: 1361–1373

Head Matter:
STATE of Louisiana v. Ramond EAMES.
No. 61699.
Supreme Court of Louisiana.
Dec. 27, 1978.
Concurring Opinion Jan. 19, 1979.
Rehearing Denied Jan. 26, 1979.
Robert C. Williams, R. Judge Eames, Ba-. ton Rouge, for defendant-appellant.
William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Ossie B. Brown, Dist. Atty., Ralph Roy, Marilyn C. Castle, Asst. Dist. Attys., for plaintiff-appellee.

Opinion:
DIXON, Justice.
Ramond Eames was charged by bill of information for having:
. . violated Louisiana Act Number 176 of 1969 in that you incited a riot which resulted in the deaths of Ralph Hancock and Dwayne Wilder Second Count: That on the above date set forth, you feloniously violated Louisiana Act Number 176 of 1969 in that you participated in the aforementioned riot which resulted in the deaths of Ralph Hancock and Dwayne Wilder More specifically, the above violations occurred in that you willfully endeavored and procured your co-defendants and others present to create and participate in a public disturbance involving your co-defendants and others acting together and in concert by urging and procurring (sic) them to take over the city of Baton Rouge by blocking the 1300 block of North Boulevard with parked vehicles and a line of human beings, involving you and your co-defendants, across North Boulevard, thereby creating a confrontation with police authorities ana physically attacking said authorities when they attempted to remove said obstruction causing a public disturbance from which the deaths of Ralph Hancock and Dwayne Wilder resulted . . . "
The verdict of the jury was "guilty of attempted participation in a riot which results in death." The jury had been instructed that one of seven responsive verdicts was "guilty of attempted participation in a riot."
In a motion for arrest of judgment, the defendant argued that the verdict was not responsive, or was otherwise so defective that it would not form the basis of a valid judgment. C.Cr.P. 859.
Act 176 of 1969 is a lengthy act which defines several offenses. Some of the act appears at R.S. 14:329.1 through 329.7. The first three sections of the act are as follows:
"Section 1. The Legislature, in recognition of unlawful disorders across the nation which are disruptive of governmental and educational processes and dangerous to the health and safety of persons and damaging to public and private property, establishes by this Act certain criminal penalties and other sanctions for conduct declared in this Act to be unlawful. Section 2. A. A riot is a public disturbance involving an assemblage of three or more persons acting together or in concert which by tumultuous and violent conduct, or the imminent threat of tumultuous and violent conduct, results in injury or damage to persons or property or creates a clear and present danger of injury or damage to persons or property. Section 3. Inciting to riot is the endeav- or by any person to incite or procure any other person to create or participate in a riot."
Section 4 concerns the command by police to disperse. Section 5 concerns the "wrongful use of property." Section 6 concerns interference with use of educational property and process. Section 7 concerns the proclamation of a state of emergency. Section 8 is the penalty clause:
"Section 8. A. Whoever willfully is the offender or participates in a riot, or is guilty of inciting a riot, or who fails to comply with a lawful command to disperse, or who is guilty of wrongful use of public property, or violates any other provision hereof shall be fined not more than five hundred dollars or be imprisoned not more than six months, or both.
B. Where as a result of any willful violation of the provisions of this Act there is any serious bodily injury or any property damage in excess of five thousand dollars, such offender shall be imprisoned at hard labor for not more than five years.
C. Where, as a result of any willful violation of the provisions of this Act, the death of any person occurs, such offender shall be imprisoned at hard labor for not to exceed twenty-one years."
The jury was instructed that it could render one of seven verdicts, as follows:
"1. Guilty of- inciting or participating in a riot which results in death.
2. Guilty of attempted participation in a riot which results in death.
3. Guilty of inciting or participating in a riot which resulted in serious bodily harm.
4. Guilty of attempted participation in a riot which resulted in serious bodily harm.
5. Guilty of inciting or participating in a riot.
6. Guilty of attempted participation in a riot.
7. Not guilty."
The verdict of the jury was not divided as to counts, nor was the jury instructed to find a verdict on both the counts in the bill of information. Count one of the bill of information was simply a charge that defendant incited a riot which resulted in deaths of two people. The second count, as noted above, accuses the defendant of having "participated in the aforementioned riot," but is qualified by the detailed "more specifically" clause. "More specifically," the defendant is charged with having endeavored to procure others to create and participate in a disturbance by acting together, and urging and procuring them to take over the city by blocking the street, thereby creating a confrontation and attacking the authorities, causing a public disturbance.
That portion of Act 176 of 1969 dealing with riots was carried over into the revised statutes as follows: Section 2 of Act 176 became 14:329.1; Section 3, 14:329.2; Section 8,14:329.7. These sections probably condemn two separate offenses, as relevant here. R.S. 14:329.2 defines "inciting to riot." The penalty provision punishes not only one "guilty of inciting to riot," but one who "participates in a riot." It is highly likely that the legislature intended to punish two separate offenses (as here relevant); one inciting to riot; the other, participating in a riot. If only one offense was intended, it was the one defined: inciting to riot.
"Counts are charges of crime joined in the same indictment. Recitals in one count may be incorporated in subsequent counts by means of a clear and distinct reference. . . . " C.Cr.P. 490.
Charged here is an offense on January 10, 1972; the bill of information was filed December 7, 1973. Therefore, Act 528 of 1975, repealing articles 491 and 492 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, relating to duplicity, and amending C.Cr.P. 493 to permit the joinder of offenses in separate counts is not applicable. At all times relevant to this case then, a bill could charge only one offense, but the same offense could be charged in different ways in several counts. C.Cr.P. 493, before the amendment by Act 528 of 1975.
In spite of the fact that the second count of the indictment announces that defendant is accused of participating in a riot, the detailed specifications charge him only with willfully endeavoring to procure others to do the acts described. Inciting to riot is defined, as noted above, as the "endeavor by any person to incite or procure any other person to create or participate in a riot." The question, then, is whether there can be an attempt to incite a riot.
An attempt is an inchoate offense. The crime of attempt is designed to punish certain activity which was not completed— incipient criminal activity. It depends for its existence on a "specific intent to commit a crime." R.S. 14:27. If the definition of another crime includes the attempt to do something, the attempt statute, R.S. 14:27, cannot be employed, for then a defendant would be charged with an attempt to attempt to do an illegal act. The reporter's comment to R.S. 14:27 makes this clear:
"This section is in accord with the general common law concept of attempt. An attempt to commit any crime is an offense, whether the offense attempted be a felony or merely a misdemeanor. Clark and Marshall, Law of Crimes (4th ed. 1940) 153, § 113. Since there can be no such thing as an attempt to commit an attempt, there can be no attempt to commit either an aggravated assault or a simple assault. Those offenses are themselves in the nature of attempts to commit a battery. See Clark and Marshall, supra, 156, § 114(d)."
See also 28 La.L.Rev. 543, 544 (1968), footnote 115:
"There is no such thing as attempted conspiracy. The courts refuse to apply the principle of the inchoate crime of attempt to other inchoate crimes. Note, 9 La.L.Rev. 413 (1949)."
9 La.L.Rev. 413 was a case note on State ex rel. Clarence Duhon v. General Manager, Louisiana State Penitentiary, No. 39,091, July 20, 1948, in which this court approved without discussion the release on a writ of habeas corpus of one who had been convicted of attempted conspiracy without having filed a motion in arrest of judgment or having taken an appeal.
Since the bill could charge only one offense, and particularized the offense of inciting to riot, and since inciting to riot, as defined in the statute, is an inchoate offense, the verdict returned was not responsive, as there can be no attempt to incite, and inciting to riot was the only crime charged.
The conviction and sentence are reversed, and the defendant is discharged.
DENNIS, J., concurs in the decree and assigns reasons.
SUMMERS and MARCUS, JJ., dissent.
SANDERS, C. J., dissents and assigns reasons.