Opinion ID: 1599736
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Submission of Lesser-Included Offenses.

Text: Error is asserted in the court's submission of lesser-included offenses. Douglas was charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder. Although not so charged, the lesser-included offenses of second-degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, and assault with intent to inflict serious injury were submitted to the jury for determination of guilt. Douglas objected to the submission of these lesser-included offenses as being factually unsupported by the record. He argues that to submit these charges that were not named in the information violates his constitutional right to be apprised of the charges against him. Our review is for errors of law. Iowa R.App.P. 4. We have established criteria for submission of lesser-included offenses in State v. Jeffries, 430 N.W.2d 728 (Iowa 1988). There we adopted a strict statutory elements test as modified that retained the legal test previously applied but abandoned the factual basis test for most included offenses. The rule was also retained in Jeffries that a defendant may expressly waive a lesser-included offense instruction. Id. at 737. Over the objection by Douglas, who specifically waived all lesser-included offense submissions, the trial court submitted them. The prosecutor objected to the submission of many lesser-included offenses but did not object to the submission of the voluntary manslaughter charge. Our statutory law makes voluntary manslaughter an included offense for murder in the first or second degree. See Iowa Code § 707.4. Without deciding whether it was error to submit the lesser offense of voluntary manslaughter, we find that reversible error was not here committed. Douglas was convicted of the first-degree murder of Linda Douglas. The general rule applies that when a defendant is convicted of a greater offense he cannot complain of the fact the jury was permitted to consider his guilt of a lesser offense. State v. Hilleshiem, 305 N.W.2d 710, 717-18 (Iowa 1981); Everett v. Brewer, 215 N.W.2d 244, 248 (Iowa 1974). A different result occurs regarding the submission of the lesser offense with the charge that Douglas attempted to murder Trooper Virgil Stammeyer. The hurdle not passed by the State in this assignment of error is that the submission of the lesser-included offense did not prejudice Douglas. Both the defense and the State objected to the submission of the offense of assault with intent to inflict serious injury. Nevertheless, the trial court submitted the lesser offense. The jury acquitted Douglas of the attempted murder charge and convicted him on the lesser offense. We have held that assault with intent to inflict serious injury is an included offense in a charge of attempted murder. State v. Powers, 278 N.W.2d 26, 28 (Iowa 1979). In State v. Wallace, 475 N.W.2d 197 (Iowa 1991), we held that where the State does not object to the defendant's waiver of a lesser-included offense instruction, as was true in the instant case, it is reversible error to submit the included offense. Id. at 202. A defendant is entitled to his all or nothing defense. We said in Wallace: Fundamental fairness dictates that Wallace should have the benefit of his all or nothing defense which he urged in the first trial. Retrial on the lesser-included offense of which he was convicted would deny Wallace this benefit. In addition, the State cannot complain because it could have avoided this result in the first place. Id. at 202. Double jeopardy prohibits retrial on the greater offense of attempted murder because the jury acquitted Douglas of it. See U.S. Const. amends. V, XIV; State v. Gowins, 211 N.W.2d 302, 303 (Iowa 1973) (5th amendment applicable to state prosecution); Poland v. Arizona, 476 U.S. 147, 152 n. 2, 106 S.Ct. 1749, 1753 n. 2, 90 L.Ed.2d 123, 130 n. 2 (1986) (a defendant charged with [a greater offense] but only convicted of [a] lesser-included offense... has been acquitted of the greater charge for purposes of the Double Jeopardy Clause). Had the State objected to the waiver by the defendant of the lesser-included offense submission, it would not have been error to submit it. See State v. Greer, 439 N.W.2d 198, 200 (Iowa 1989). We reverse and remand with directions to dismiss the charge of attempted murder.