Opinion ID: 2038757
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Same Offense

Text: ¶ 16. Under the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution, as well as a similar provision in the Wisconsin Constitution, [8] no person shall be placed twice in jeopardy of punishment for the same offense. State v. Trawitzki, 2001 WI 77, ¶ 20, 244 Wis. 2d 523, 628 N.W.2d 801 (citing Sauceda, 168 Wis. 2d at 492). It is well established that the Double Jeopardy Clause applies in three situations. It protects against a second prosecution for the same offense after acquittal. It protects against a second prosecution for the same offense after conviction. And it protects against multiple punishments for the same offense. North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 717 (1969); see also State v. Kurzawa, 180 Wis. 2d 502, 515, 509 N.W.2d 712 (1994). ¶ 17. In all three situations, the protection of the Double Jeopardy Clause involves the definition of same offense. State v. Davison, 2003 WI 89, ¶¶ 19-20, 263 Wis. 2d 145, 666 N.W.2d 1. How courts define the same offense often carries profound consequences for criminal defendants seeking the protection of the Double Jeopardy Clause. Whether one offense is the same as another is not limited to whether the two offenses arise under the identical statutory provision. Rather, the touchstone of sameness is the elements-only test, which the United States Supreme Court articulated in Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 304 (1932). Under the Blockburger test, one offense is not the same offense as another when each provision requires proof of a fact which the other does not. Id. (citing Gavieres v. United States, 220 U.S. 338, 342 (1911)). ¶ 18. In the context of a second prosecution, this court has adopted the Blockburger test to demarcate the boundary between lawful successive prosecutions from constitutional violations. State v. Kurzawa, 180 Wis. 2d at 524. Unlike multiple punishments, where the Blockburger test can be seen as establishing a rebuttable presumption that may give way to legislative intent, Davison, 263 Wis. 2d 145, ¶ 25, successive prosecutions, with the attendant danger of government abuse, caution against looking past the Blockburger test's proscriptions because of legislative intent. See id. Indeed, the Supreme Court, first in Grady v. Corbin, 495 U.S. 508 (1990), and then in United States v. Dixon, 509 U.S. 688 (1993), the case that overruled Grady, has been willing to move beyond a strict elements only interpretation of Blockburger in cases involving a second prosecution. See Davison, 263 Wis. 2d 145, ¶ 25 (The court appears less tolerant of prosecuting the same offense in a second prosecution.).