Opinion ID: 1197787
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Analyzing Lesser-Included Offense Questions

Text: We begin our analysis by recognizing that the issue of whether one criminal offense is a lesser-included [2] offense of another arises in at least three different contexts. First, the issue comes up in the context of double jeopardy. The Double Jeopardy Clause prohibits successive prosecutions for two offenses arising out of the same conduct if either one is a lesser-included offense within the other. See Brown v. Ohio, 432 U.S. 161, 165-66, 97 S.Ct. 2221, 2225-26, 53 L.Ed.2d 187 (1977). The second type of situation arises when the defendant requests a jury instruction on a lesser-included offense of the crime charged, and the third situation is that which is presented here: a request by the prosecutor for a jury instruction on a lesser-included offense. Although the latter two categories both fall within the purview of SCRA 1986, 5-611(D) (Repl.Pamp.1992), [3] we view these two categories as distinct because different interests are implicated depending upon whether the defendant or the State requests the instruction. See United States v. Whitaker, 447 F.2d 314, 321 (D.C.Cir. 1971), overruled by Schmuck, 489 U.S. at 716, 109 S.Ct. at 1450-51. The defendant's constitutional right to notice of the crime against which he must defend is a consideration that arises when, as here, the State requests a jury instruction on a lesser-included offense over the defendant's objection. Notice is not an issue when the defendant makes such a request because the request itself constitutes a waiver of the right to notice. A defendant's request does, however, implicate other constitutional considerations. See generally Edward G. Mascolo, Procedural Due Process and the Lesser-Included Offense Doctrine, 50 Alb.L.Rev. 263, 267-69 (1985) [hereinafter Mascolo]. This Court's opinion in Henderson, 116 N.M. at 541, 865 P.2d at 1185, involved such a request, and we will return to that case later in this discussion. Courts of different jurisdictions have further complicated this area of the law by developing several different analytical approaches to the question of whether one offense is a lesser-included offense within another. See generally State v. Jeffries, 430 N.W.2d 728, 730-32 (Iowa 1988). We offer brief descriptions of these different theories with the caveat that, although there are three or four basic theories, there is much overlap between them and it is often difficult to classify precisely a particular court's methodology. The most straightforward and least flexible approach is the so-called strict elements test. Under this method, a court would find an offense to be a lesser-included offense of another only if the statutory elements of the lesser offense are a sub-set of the statutory elements of the greater offense such that it would be impossible ever to commit the greater offense without also committing the lesser offense. The United States Supreme Court adopted this approach in Schmuck, 489 U.S. at 716, 109 S.Ct. at 1450-51, and New Mexico has embraced a form of the strict elements test, based on Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 52 S.Ct. 180, 76 L.Ed. 306 (1932), as an aid in determining legislative intent for double jeopardy purposes. See Swafford v. State, 112 N.M. 3, 14, 810 P.2d 1223, 1234 (1991). Another analytical approach is the indictment or pleading theory, also referred to as the cognate-pleading theory, Jeffries, 430 N.W.2d at 731, under which one offense is lesser-included within the offense charged if the allegations of the charging document, when taken as true, would prove all the essential elements of the lesser offense. See United States v. Browner, 937 F.2d 165, 168 (5th Cir.1991) (discussing pleading theory). Other courts have employed what has been referred to as the inherent relationship test, which focuses upon the interests to be protected and whether proof of the lesser offense is necessarily [though not invariably] presented as part of the showing of the commission of the greater offense. Whitaker, 447 F.2d at 319. Another method is the cognate-evidence approach, which involves an examination of the statutory elements and the evidence adduced at trial to determine whether, under the facts of the particular case, the lesser offense is sufficiently related to the charged offense to warrant a jury instruction on the former. See Jeffries, 430 N.W.2d at 731. Still another analytical method embodies a hybrid of the cognate-pleadings and cognate-evidence approaches. Under this hybrid method, the court's inquiry focuses upon both the charging instrument and the evidence adduced at trial. See Mascolo, supra, at 276.