Opinion ID: 1043968
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: The Blockburger Test in Tennessee

Text: Under the Blockburger test, Tennessee courts must focus upon ascertaining legislative intent. If the General Assembly has expressed an intent to permit multiple punishment, no further analysis will be necessary, and multiple convictions should be upheld against a double jeopardy challenge. See, e.g., Godsey, 60 S.W.3d at 777; Blackburn, 694 S.W.2d at 936. Likewise, if the General Assembly has expressed an intent to preclude multiple punishment, [44] then no further analysis will be necessary, and improper multiple convictions should be vacated. [45] Where the General Assembly's intent is not clearly expressed, the Blockburger test should be applied to determine whether multiple convictions under different statutes punish the same offense. The first step of the Blockburger test is the threshold question of whether the convictions arise from the same act or transaction. This threshold question should be answered by reference to the charging instrument and the relevant statutory provisions. Here it is appropriate to consider whether the charges arise from discrete acts or involve multiple victims. Thus, what was formerly the third Denton factor now appropriately has a role to play in the threshold inquiry. If the convictions do not arise from the same act or transaction, there cannot be a violation of the double jeopardy protection against multiple punishment. Thus, a threshold determination that multiple convictions do not arise from the same act or transaction ends the inquiry and obviates the need for courts to further analyze double jeopardy claims. In this respect, the threshold inquiry serves the interest of judicial economy, while also providing lawyers and judges with a means of predictably evaluating the merits of multiple punishment double jeopardy claims. [46] If the threshold is surpassed, meaning the convictions arise from the same act or transaction, the second step of the Blockburger test requires courts to examine the statutory elements of the offenses. If the elements of the offenses are the same, or one offense is a lesser included of the other, then we will presume that multiple convictions are not intended by the General Assembly and that multiple convictions violate double jeopardy. [47] However, if each offense includes an element that the other does not, the statutes do not define the same offense for double jeopardy purposes, and we will presume that the Legislature intended to permit multiple punishments. In nearly all cases involving multiple description claims, application of the Blockburger test will provide a definitive answer to the question of whether the Legislature intended to permit multiple convictions under separate statutes. In the rare case where doubt as to legislative intent remains after application of the Blockburger test, courts may consider other evidence of legislative intent, including the purposes and history of the relevant statutes. See Albernaz, 450 U.S. at 342-43, 101 S.Ct. 1137; see also Hunter, 459 U.S. at 367, 103 S.Ct. 673 (observing that in Albernaz, [w]e might well have stopped at that point [after applying the Blockburger test], but we went on to determine that `[n]othing . . . in the legislative history. . . disclose[d] an intent contrary to the [ Blockburger ] presumption'); Beauregard, 32 S.W.3d at 683-84 (discussing the distinct purposes of rape and incest statutes); see also State v. Collins, 166 S.W.3d 721, 726 (Tenn.2005) (discussing the factors courts traditionally rely upon to discern legislative intent).