Opinion ID: 1773643
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Harris v. Oklahoma

Text: In Harris v. Oklahoma , the Supreme Court reversed the decision of the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals (Oklahoma's court of last resort in criminal actions) announced in Harris v. State, 555 P.2d 76 (Okl.Cr. 1976). Harris was initially convicted of felony-murder. Subsequently he was brought to trial for the underlying felony, robbery with firearms. The trial judge overruled his motion to dismiss grounded upon double jeopardy. Reference to our decision in Briggs, supra , will indicate that the factual situations in the two cases were strikingly similar. In holding that an individual may be separately prosecuted and convicted for felony murder and the underlying felony which is the basis for the felony murder, 555 P.2d at 81, the very first case cited by the Oklahoma Court is Briggs. When Harris reached the Supreme Court of the United States, the Oklahoma Court was reversed. The Court said: When, as here, conviction for a greater crime, murder, cannot be had without conviction for the lesser crime, robbery with firearms, the Double Jeopardy Clause bars prosecution for the lesser crime after conviction for the greater one. 433 U.S. at 682, 97 S.Ct. at 2912, 53 L.Ed.2d at 1056. Under our statutory law (§ 39-2402(4), T.C.A.) as it existed at the time of the commission of the offenses here under consideration, first degree murder was accomplished, among other ways, a willful, deliberate, malicious and premeditated killing or by willful, deliberate and malicious killing or murder during the perpetration of certain enumerated felonies. [1] The latter is felony-murder and the ingredient of premeditation is not required. Thus, Harris v. Oklahoma demands a reversal of this conviction to the extent of the conviction for the underlying felony.