Court Opinion

ID: 9682434
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 08:11:24.001051+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:39.366606
License: Public Domain

John I. Purtle, Justice, dissenting. The majority opinion is correct on one point and that is it has long been the rule that a defendant on appeal can only be tried in circuit court for the same offense for which he was tried in municipal court. The appellant here was tried and convicted in the municipal court for first offense DWI. The majority promptly disregards its statement by allowing the appellant to be tried in circuit court, on appeal from the municipal court, for second offense DWI when he had been tried and convicted only of first offense DWI in the municipal court. If there is no difference in first or second offense why does the statute clearly make them two separate and distinct offenses? The cases cited in support of amending the information at any time up until the case is submitted to the jury relate to informations filed in circuit court. In such cases there has been no other trial. Perhaps the charge could have been amended in the municipal court to a second offense DWI but to do so on appeal amounts to double jeopardy. In State v. Brown, 283 Ark. 304, 675 S.W.2d 822 (1984), the charge was amended down, not up as it was here. In the present case the appellant was tried on the facts presented to a court of competent jurisdiction. He was tried on the same facts in the circuit court. He has been twice placed in jeopardy, for the same offense in violation of the State and Federal Constitutions. I would reverse and remand for a first offense DWI appeal in the circuit court.