Court Opinion

ID: 9527786
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 03:34:15.693567+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:26:12.158885
License: Public Domain

DICKSON, Justice,
concurring.
In the habitual offender proceedings in both Washington v. State (1982), Ind., 441 N.E.2d 1355, and Morgan v. State (1982), Ind., 440 N.E.2d 1087, prior unrelated felony records were exclusively established by oral testimony. No certified records or documents were placed in evidence,. We stated:
The requirement of the law that such records be kept reflects the monumental interest of society in the maintenance of accurate and reliable evidence of such matter. 'To countenance proof of such an important matter as a prior conviction in a criminal trial upon parol evidence alone from witnesses who have observed the judicial proceedings, resulting in it, is counter to our entire perspective on the subject. We, therefore, hold that parol evidence standing alone is insufficient evidence of the fact of prior convictions in the absence of a showing of the unavailability of the proper certified records.
Id. at 1090-91 (emphasis supplied); quoted with approval in Washington, 441 N.E.2d at 1359. We nonetheless remanded the matter for retrial of the habitual offender count. Morgan, 440 N.E.2d at 1091. This refusal to apply double jeopardy principles in habitual offender trials was superseded by our decisions in Perkins v. State (1989), Ind., 542 N.E.2d 549, and Phillips v. State (1989), Ind., 541 N.E.2d 925, which were compelled by the intervening decision in Lockhart v. Nelson (1988), 488 U.S. 33, 109 S.Ct. 285, 102 LEd.2d 265.
The majority today concludes that where the existence of prior felonies is established by certified records, parol evidence may provide sufficient proof of the dates of commission. However, this holding does not modify the holding in Morgan, 440 N.E.2d 1087, and Washington, 441 N.E.2d 1355, that the evidence of habitual offender status is insufficient in the absence of proper available certified records of the prior felony convictions. The present case differs from Morgan and Henderson in that the habitual offender trial record here does contain documentary evidence establishing the existence of the prior convictions. It is only the date of commission of these prior felonies that was provided by oral testimony.
Thus, in cases where the existence of prior felony convictions is not proven by proper available certified records, the evidence of habitual offender status will be insufficient, and retrial of the habitual offender count will be precluded because of double jeopardy. Perkins, 542 N.E.2d 549; Phillips, 541 N.E.2d 925.
SHEPARD, C.J., and KRAHULIK, J., concur.