Opinion ID: 1958935
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Merger and double jeopardy contrasted

Text: To demonstrate how merger principles operate, and how they differ in application from double jeopardy rules, we will examine situations in which double jeopardy and merger theory might yield different results. Perhaps the prime example of merger leading to a different conclusion than the same offense test is the case of an unlawful entry undertaken with intent to commit a crime in the premises. In most cases such an unlawful entry would support convictions for both burglary, 18 Pa.C.S. § 3502, and criminal trespass, id. § 3503. In Commonwealth v. Carter, supra , the Pennsylvania Supreme Court held that burglary and criminal trespass do not stand in the relationship of greater and lesser included offenses, because they contain disparate elements: burglary requires proof of entry into a building with intent to commit a crime therein, an element not necessary to establish criminal trespass; criminal trespass requires proof that the defendant knew he lacked license or privilege to enter, while burglary does not. Burglary and criminal trespass therefore are not the same offense. Nevertheless it has uniformly been held that cumulative sentences for both burglary and criminal trespass based on the same entry violate the doctrine of merger of offenses for sentencing purposes. See Commonwealth v. Smith, 499 Pa. 507, 454 A.2d 1 (1982) (per curiam); Johnston v. Commonwealth, 85 Pa. 54 (1877); Commonwealth v. Gordon, 329 Pa.Super. 42, 477 A.2d 1342 (1984); Commonwealth v. Vazquez, 328 Pa.Super. 86, 476 A.2d 466 (1984); Commonwealth v. Simpson, supra ; Commonwealth v. Cadogan, 297 Pa.Super. 405, 443 A.2d 1185 (1982); Crocker, supra ; see also In re Mark C., 340 Pa.Super. 151, 489 A.2d 887 (1985) (attempt-trespass merges with attempt-burglary). The statutes prohibiting burglary and criminal trespass do not serve separate and distinct interests of the Commonwealth. Both protect citizens and their property from illegal entries. Of course, the burglary statute includes added protection against the criminal intent of the actor once he breaks the close. However, the purpose of the criminal trespass statute, to punish illegal entries, is entirely subsumed in the prohibition against burglary. Hence, the crimes merge when based on the same entry. Smith, supra . As another example, indecent assault merges with rape when they arise from the same act. Each crime has an element not included in the other: indecent assault requires indecent contact, which by definition is a touching done for the purpose of arousing or gratifying sexual desire, 18 Pa.C.S. §§ 3126, 3101; rape requires the further element of sexual intercourse, i.e., penetration, id. § 3121, but does not require the Commonwealth to prove that the purpose of the actor was to arouse or gratify sexual desire. As a practical matter, however, proof of rape will almost always suffice to prove indecent assault. If the defendant has indeed raped his victim, it is not protecting any additional interest of the victim or society to impose additional punishment for the indecent assault that necessarily inheres in the rape. Thus, the crimes merge. Commonwealth v. Flynn, 314 Pa.Super. 162, 460 A.2d 816 (1983); Commonwealth v. Schilling, 288 Pa.Super. 359, 431 A.2d 1088 (1981); Commonwealth v. Richardson, supra . Of course, if the defendant has committed more than one discrete act during a sexual assault, and each constitutes a separate invasion of the victim's person, each act may be punished separately. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Klinger, 323 Pa.Super. 181, 470 A.2d 540 (1983) (separate convictions for involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and two indecent assaults based on three acts committed in one episode); Commonwealth v. Pifer, supra . The fact that a defendant has visited one injury upon the person of another does not insulate him from further liability if he chooses to continue his assaultive behavior and in doing so commits additional crimes. See Wojciechowski, supra ; Pifer, supra . The crimes of simple assault and recklessly endangering another person are not always the same offense for double jeopardy purposes. Simple assault as charged may require the actual infliction of bodily injury, 18 Pa.C.S. § 2701(a)(1), (2), while reckless endangerment requires conduct which threatens a person with death or serious bodily injury, id. § 2705. However, where the same act towards the same victim both causes physical injury and creates the possibility of an even greater degree of injury, a just application of the merger doctrine dictates that the perpetrator be punished for only one crime. See Commonwealth v. Artis, supra (single act of stabbing the victim). Once again, however, if the defendant commits an assault and at the same time endangers an interest in a manner separate from the injury he has done by the act of assault, he may be punished for both crimes. See, e.g., Miranda, supra ; Pifer, supra ; Lawton, supra ; see also Commonwealth v. Cavanaugh, 278 Pa.Super. 542, 420 A.2d 674 (1980) (Court affirmed separate convictions for aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, and terroristic threats arising out of single attack on victim with tire iron; held, however, that separate sentence for simple assault merged). Frequently where the prosecutor has succeeded in pursuing multiple charges of violent crime arising from the same criminal act, they will merge if the evidence shows that they all did essentially one and the same harm to the same Commonwealth interest. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Darras, 337 Pa.Super. 32, 486 A.2d 465 (1984) (motion for allowance of appeal filed) (attempted homicide/aggravated assault/reckless endangerment merged; kidnapping/unlawful restraint merged); Commonwealth v. Laing, supra (aggravated assault/reckless endangerment); Commonwealth v. Sheffield, 306 Pa.Super. 274, 452 A.2d 550 (1982) (same; also kidnapping/unlawful restraint/false imprisonment); Commonwealth v. Walls, supra (robbery/reckless endangerment); Commonwealth v. Moore, 300 Pa.Super. 488, 446 A.2d 960 (1982) (robbery/aggravated assault/reckless endangerment); Commonwealth v. Eberts, supra (robbery/reckless endangerment); Commonwealth v. Jackson, 271 Pa.Super. 131, 412 A.2d 610 (1979) (same). A perfect illustration of the principle involved is provided by the case of Commonwealth v. Ford, 315 Pa.Super. 281, 461 A.2d 1281 (1983), in which a single gunshot to the victim's back resulted in convictions for attempted murder, aggravated assault, and recklessly endangering another person. Because all three crimes were based on the single act of shooting the victim, and each statute violated protected substantially the same Commonwealth interest in the life and safety of one person, the crimes necessarily merged for sentencing purposes. If a defendant attempts to murder someone, but his act done in furtherance of that purpose only succeeds in seriously injuring and endangering the victim, only one harm has been done. The Commonwealth's interest in preserving the life of the victim is not supplemented by separate and distinct interests in saving the victim from serious bodily injury and endangerment. The statutes prohibiting murder, assault, and reckless endangerment all strive to guard citizens from varying degrees of being put in physical peril. When all these degrees of danger are encompassed in the same criminal act, there can be punishment under only one statute. Generally in such cases the prosecutor will have offered the jury a smorgasbord of offenses from which to choose. Artis, supra, 294 Pa.Super. at 282, 439 A.2d at 1202. Often this is to insure a conviction under any of a number of alternative factual theories which the jury might decide to believe. Once multiple convictions have been obtained, however, it may become the prosecutor's duty not to oppose merger of offenses at sentencing if in good faith he believes that the multiple charges were premised on a single source of injury to the Commonwealth. In this respect, the prosecutor must assist the sentencing court in securing a just disposition of the charges in accordance with the intent of the legislature. Such forthrightness on the part of prosecutors would not only serve legislative goals, but would contribute to judicial economy by reducing the number of illegal sentences that are imposed, then later challenged on appeal or through post-conviction proceedings. However, particularly in the arena of violent offenses, courts must be ever wary not to let separate depredations on the public weal go unpunished through a faulty application of the merger doctrine. There is always a temptation to rely by rote on prior authority to hold that particular statutory offenses merge. Cf. Darras, supra; Commonwealth v. Yancey, 301 Pa.Super. 427, 447 A.2d 1041 (1982); Commonwealth v. Brown, 259 Pa.Super. 502, 393 A.2d 938 (1978). But merger is rarely a rule to be mechanically applied; it usually demands careful scrutiny of the particular facts and charges on which the defendant is being sentenced. See Commonwealth v. Buser, 277 Pa.Super. 451, 419 A.2d 1233 (1980). Where the charges are not greater and lesser included offenses in the true sense, it will seldom be the case that one statutory crime merges with another automatically. Suppose a defendant robs his victim, and wantonly injures or tries to kill him as well; such a case raises a legitimate question whether the defendant has actually done two substantially different injuries to the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth. Sometimes to prove that a theft was robbery it is necessary to prove an aggravated assault; if so the same facts will prove both robbery and assault and they will merge. See Commonwealth v. Nelson, 337 Pa.Super. 292, 486 A.2d 1340 (1984). The legislative intention to punish the defendant only once for the robbery would be apparent in such a case since the robbery statute has a built-in prohibition against inflicting serious bodily injury in the course of stealing property. See 18 Pa.C.S. § 3701(a)(1). On the other hand, if an aggravated assault were not necessarily involved in the robbery and the prosecutor could prove each without proving the other, then maybe two separate offenses in fact were committed. See, e.g., Commonwealth v. Thompson, 343 Pa.Super. 468, 495 A.2d 560 (1985). A robbery can be carried out by the infliction of serious injury, but it can also be accomplished by mere threats of force (terroristic threats) or simple assault; the commission of robbery by these or any means does not give the robber carte blanche to engage in as many repeated attempts on the life or well-being of the victim as the circumstances allow. If a court were nevertheless to merge the offenses of robbery and aggravated assault as a matter of routine, it might defeat whatever legislative purpose there was in identifying the taking of property by force and the doing of physical harm to persons as two separate and distinct means of injuring the Commonwealth. See, e.g., Moszczynski, supra. It might also permit the defendant to escape liability for one of two separate and distinct crimes which he has committed and should justly pay for. We cannot allow our merger doctrine to act as an open invitation to violent assailants to go ahead and perpetrate actual physical injury on their victims after having robbed or raped them by putting them in fear of such injury. This would clearly be an abuse of a doctrine whose salutary purpose is to prevent the imposition of multiple sentences on a single criminal offense. See Thompson, supra ; see also Pifer, supra (no merger of attempted homicide/aggravated assault where first charge was based on slashing of victim's throat, second on choking and laceration of victim); Commonwealth v. Jackson, 269 Pa.Super. 583, 410 A.2d 854 (1979) (Wieand, J., dissenting); Commonwealth v. Hill, supra (lesser assault charge merged into greater, but separate sentence for robbery allowed to stand).