Opinion ID: 1599703
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: # 3. Whether the trial court erred in denying appellant's Motion to Dismiss the Indictment because the indictment had stacked counts?

Text: MISS. CODE ANN. § 99-7-2 (1972) (Supp. 1989) is pertinent to this issue and reads in its entirety as follows: (1) Two (2) or more offenses which are triable in the same court may be charged in the same indictment with a separate count for each offense if: (a) the offenses are based on the same act or transaction; or (b) the offenses are based on two (2) or more acts or transactions connected together or constituting parts of a common scheme or plan. (2) Where two (2) or more offenses are properly charged in separate counts of a single indictment, all such charges may be tried in a single proceeding. (3) When a defendant is convicted of two (2) or more offenses charged in separate counts of an indictment, the court shall impose separate sentences for each such conviction. (4) The jury or the court, in cases in which the jury is waived, shall return a separate verdict for each count of an indictment drawn under subsection (1) of this section. (5) Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to prohibit the court from exercising its statutory authority to suspend either the imposition or execution of any sentence or sentences imposed hereunder, nor to prohibit the court from exercising its discretion to impose such sentences to run either concurrently with or consecutively to each other or any other sentence or sentences previously imposed upon the defendant. Appellant claims he is unable to find court authority for or against his position but that it appears to me (appellant) that the statute above does not authorize the stacking of three different occasions for the alleged commission of the same offense. He concludes that [f]or this Court to permit the trial of all three charges in one trial of the severity of this case confounds the defense of the case, and sand bags the defendant. Appellee responds by correctly asserting that the three counts of the indictment involved the same type of conduct by appellant, committed by him upon the same person, only at different times. MISS. CODE ANN. § 99-7-2(1)(a) and (b) (Supp. 1989) clearly allows what was done in the indictment in the case at bar, particularly being that these three transactions, very plainly, were connected by the identity of the victim and by the identity of the kind of act committed by appellant. Furthermore, all of the evidence proving each count was fully admissible to prove each of the other counts. Therefore, if the State had tried appellant at three separate trials, testimony as to the two other acts of rape by this appellant would have been admissible at each of the three trials. See, Mitchell v. State, 539 So.2d 1366, 1372 (Miss. 1989); White v. State, 520 So.2d 497, 500 (Miss. 1988); Woodruff v. State, 518 So.2d 669, 671 (Miss. 1988). We agree with the state's analysis as it comports in particular with MISS. CODE ANN. § 99-7-2(1)(b) (Supp. 1989). This Court has recently discussed in great detail the pros and cons of single multi-count indictments allowed by MISS. CODE ANN. § 99-7-2 (Supp. 1989). McCarty v. State, 554 So.2d 909 (Miss. 1989). After a thorough study of each of the opinions this Court has written with regard to § 99-7-2 (Supp. 1989), effective from and after July 1, 1986, we think the series of two rapes and one alleged attempt were properly joined under one indictment, since they were part of a common scheme or plan, pursuant to the language of MISS. CODE ANN. § 99-7-2(1)(b) (Supp. 1989). We hold this assignment of error to be meritless.