Court Opinion

ID: 9719534
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:55:27.692846+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:08.026275
License: Public Domain

White, J.,
concurring.
I agree with the majority’s treatment of the double jeopardy issue presented in this case and only write to emphasize the flaws which that analysis reveals in our separate lesser-included *731offense doctrine.
The majority recognizes that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 52 S. Ct. 180, 76 L. Ed. 306 (1932), is the starting point for analysis of double jeopardy issues. In that case, the Supreme Court held that in determining whether the same act or transaction is punishable under more than one statutory provision, the test is “whether each provision requires proof of a fact which the other does not.” Blockburger, supra at 284 U.S. at 304. As the majority also points out, in Grady v. Corbin, _ U.S__, 110 S. Ct. 2084, 109 L. Ed. 2d 548 (1990), the Court held that the fifth amendment affords additional protection in the context of subsequent prosecutions involving the same act or transaction.
Nevertheless, it remains the case that application of the Blockburger test, ordinarily determines whether cumulative punishments may be imposed for separate offenses arising out of the same act or transaction in a single prosecution. Ohio v. Johnson, 467 U.S. 493, 104 S. Ct. 2536, 81 L. Ed. 2d 425 (1984). When two statutory provisions proscribe the “same offense” under the Blockburger test, there is a presumption that the imposition of punishment for both in a single prosecution is forbidden. Missouri v. Hunter, 459 U.S. 359, 103 S. Ct. 673, 74 L. Ed. 2d 535 (1983), quoting Whalen v. United States, 445 U.S. 684, 100 S. Ct. 1432, 63 L. Ed. 2d 715 (1980). The application of the Blockburger test, moreover, clearly involves a strict comparison of statutory elements, rather than reliance on the actual evidence adduced at trial. See, United States v. Woodward, 469 U.S. 105, 105 S. Ct. 611, 83 L. Ed. 2d 518 (1985); Illinois v. Vitale, 447 U.S. 410, 100 S. Ct. 2260, 65 L. Ed. 2d 228 (1980).
The determination of whether a person is being put in jeopardy more than once for the same offense in a single prosecution is closely related to the question of whether a lesser-included offense instruction is proper in a criminal case. Blair, Constitutional Limitations on the Lesser Included Offense Doctrine, 21 Am. Crim. L. Rev. 445 (1984). It is obviously desirable, then, to use the same test to resolve both issues. See U.S. v. Schmuck, 840 F.2d 384 (7th Cir. 1988). Given *732the continuing vitality of the Blockburger test in the double jeopardy context, it would be logical to adopt a strict elements approach to the lesser-included offense doctrine as well. The U.S. Supreme Court recently did so for the federal courts in Schmuck v. United States, 489 U.S. 705, 109 S. Ct. 1443, 103 L. Ed. 2d 734 (1989). Therefore, I repeat the view expressed previously that this court should adopt a strict elements approach rather than the amorphous cognate-evidence approach for determining whether a lesser-included offense exists. See State v. Garza, 236 Neb. 202, 459 N.W.2d 739 (1990) (White, J., dissenting).