Opinion ID: 1060156
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 13

Heading: double jeopardy sentencing issue

Text: Clagett asserts, and the Commonwealth concedes, that he has been impermissibly punished with five death sentences for four homicides. Such a circumstance presents an unusual case for the application of the double jeopardy doctrine. Generally, a defendant cannot be placed in jeopardy more than once for a single criminal act. However, the state may, under one or multiple indictments, charge a defendant using multiple theories concerning the same crime or greater and lesser crimes arising out of the same act or transaction. In such cases, the prohibition against multiple prosecution double jeopardy does not apply so long as the defendant is arraigned and tried in a single proceeding. See Blythe v. Commonwealth, 222 Va. 722, 725, 284 S.E.2d 796, 797-98 (1981); United States v. Quinones, 906 F.2d 924, 928 (2d Cir.1990), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 1069, 111 S.Ct. 789, 112 L.Ed.2d 851 (1991). When so prosecuted, the accused cannot be subjected to more than one conviction and punishment for each discrete criminal act. Ohio v. Johnson, 467 U.S. 493, 500, 104 S.Ct. 2536, 2541, 81 L.Ed.2d 425 (1984); Blythe, 222 Va. at 725, 284 S.E.2d at 797-98. In Buchanan v. Commonwealth, 238 Va. 389, 384 S.E.2d 757 (1989), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 1063, 110 S.Ct. 880, 107 L.Ed.2d 963 (1990), we addressed a case of multiple punishment double jeopardy. There we held that an excess conviction must be set aside and its related sentence vacated. Id. at 414-15, 384 S.E.2d at 772-73; see also Williams v. Commonwealth, 248 Va. 528, 547, 450 S.E.2d 365, 377 (1994), cert. denied, ___ U.S. ___, 115 S.Ct. 2616, 132 L.Ed.2d 858 (1995); Morris v. Commonwealth, 228 Va. 206, 209, 321 S.E.2d 633, 634-35 (1984). Although Buchanan dealt with greater and lesser degrees of homicide, we believe that the same rationale should apply to cases where the convictions are for crimes of equal magnitude. In this case, each of the convictions for capital murder during the commission of a robbery may stand on its own. The conviction for multiple homicide capital murder, although of equal magnitude, is derivative of the other four. Accordingly, we will vacate the conviction and the corresponding sentence for that crime. See Buchanan, 238 Va. at 415, 384 S.E.2d at 773; Brown v. Commonwealth, 222 Va. 111, 116, 279 S.E.2d 142, 145 (1981).