Court Opinion

ID: 9429655
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:27:29.685478+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:20.633708
License: Public Domain

Justice Stevens,
with whom Justice Marshall joins,
dissenting.
A conviction based on a plea of guilty has the same legal effect as a conviction based on a jury’s verdict. The conviction in this case authorized the State of Ohio to place respondent in prison for several years. As the Court ex-. pressly recognizes, “the Double Jeopardy Clause prohibits prosecution of a defendant for a greater offense when he has already been . . . convicted on the lesser included offense.” Ante, at 501. That statement fits this case precisely. Since it is a correct statement of the law, I would affirm the judgment of the Supreme Court of Ohio insofar as it denied the State the right to prosecute respondent on the charge of murder.*

As far as the charge of aggravated robbery is concerned, it is perfectly obvious that the judgment of the Ohio Supreme Court rests on the adequate and independent state ground that it was an “allied offense of similar import” to theft within the meaning of the Ohio rule that precludes prosecution for two such offenses. The Court’s cavalier disregard for the state-law basis for this aspect of the judgment of the Supreme Court of Ohio is totally unprecedented.