Court Opinion

ID: 9864760
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-25 16:10:07.729703+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:31:37.338158
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Butleb,
dissenting.
It is said in the majority opinion that when Webb v. People, 83 Colo. 1, 262 Pac. 906, was decided it was supported “perhaps by the distinct weight of authority., The court bases its reversal of that case upon Dunn v. *29United States (U. S.), 52 Sup. Ct. 189. That decision, as I understand it, is not inconsistent with the decision in the Webb case, and does not support the conclusion announced in the majority opinion in this case. There is a vital distinction between the two cases.
In the Dunn case the question before the court may be stated thus: Was the crime charged in the second count such that, if the defendant was not guilty of such crime, he could not be guilty of the crime charged in the first count? Or, in other words, Was the crime charged in the second count such that, if there had been separate indictments and that charge had been tried first, an acquittal could be pleaded as res judicata of the charge in the other indictment? If it was, the judgment must be reversed; if it was not, the judgment must be affirmed. Eight justices were of the opinion that the crime charged in the second count was so far different from that charged in the first count that the defendant could be not guilty of the former and still be guilty of the latter. The court said: “If separate indictments had been presented ag’ainst the defendant for possession and for maintenance of a nuisance and had been separately tried, the same evidence being offered in support of each, an acquittal on one could not be pleaded as res judicata of the other. Where the offenses are separately charged in the counts of a single indictment the same rule must hold. ’ ’ That view logically called for an affirmance of the judgment, and such was the decision of the court. The dissenting justice, on the other hand, was of the opinion that, if the defendant was not guilty of the crime charged in the second count, he could not be guilty of the crime charged in the first; in other words, if there had been separate indictments, an acquittal of the former charge would be res judicata of the latter. That view necessarily called for a reversal of the judgment, and had the majority of the justices talien that view, the judg-ment undoubtedly would have been reversed.
The majority opinion in the present case treats the *30language quoted above from tbe majority opinion in the Dunn case as no more than “the announcement of a general rule.” I do not so understand it. The language negatives such a supposition. It does not purport to state a mere general rule. The statement is not in the abstract, but in the concrete; it is applied specifically to the case then before the court. The court was not dealing in generalities, but in a brief, concise opinion of two pages dealt with the facts in that particular case and with the law applicable thereto. It would seem that the quoted language should not be passed over as of no importance to the decision. It shows on its face that it was used to justify the result at which the court arrived. The conclusion that it was the very basis of the decision seems to me to be irresistible.
In the present case, at least some of the counts upon which the defendants were acquitted are identical with the one upon which they were convicted; the court treats all of the counts as identical. Referring to the Dunn case, this court says that, “It is perfectly apparent that if defendant was not guilty on the second count he could not have been guilty on the first.” Having thus adopted the premise adopted by the dissenting justice in the Dunn case, this court adopts the conclusion of the majority of the justices in that case — a conclusion based, as we have seen, upon a premise the very opposite of the one adopted by the dissenting justice in that case and by this court in the present case. In other words, this court adopts the premise adopted in the dissenting opinion in the Dunn case, but rejects the conclusion to which that premise necessarily leads; and adopts the conclusion announced in the majority opinion in that case, while rejecting the very premise upon which it rests. I am unable to follow the reasoning and cannot concur in the conclusion that, in repudiating the doctrine announced in the Webb case, we are following the highest judicial tribunal of the nation.
I do not share the fear, expressed in the majority opin*31ion, that if we follow the Webb case the state could never safely file separate counts in one information, as it customarily has done. In different counts a defendant may be charged with an assault to murder, an assault with a deadly weapon with intent to commit a bodily injury, an assault to rape, an assault to commit mayhem, and an assault to rob, and may be convicted on one count and acquitted on the others. Verdicts of not guilty on all but one of the counts would not be repugnant to, and would not nullify, the verdict of guilty on the one count. So a count for larceny may be joined with one for receiving stolen g’oods, and a verdict of not guilty on one would not be repugnant to, and would not nullify, a verdict of guilty on the other. So of burglary with force and burglary without force. So, also, of forgery and uttering. Other examples will readily occur to the profession, but the foregoing will suffice. The same rule applies where the same crime is charged in separate counts as having been committed by different means. Even the case assumed in the majority opinion need not cause any anxiety. If A were charged in two counts in an information with the murder of B at the same time and place and by the same means — an unthinkable supposition- — ■ the proper procedure would be for the jury to return a general verdict on the information, not a separate verdict on each count; and, of course, if that verdict should be that the defendant is guilty, the defendant would be sentenced for only one offense. Short v. People, 27 Colo. 175, 60 Pac. 350; Snyder v. United States, 112 U. S. 216, 5 Sup. Ct. 118; Dunbar v. United States, 156 U. S. 185, 15 Sup. Ct. 325; Powers v. United States, 223 U. S. 303, 32 Sup. Ct. 281; Babcock v. United States (C. C. Colo.), 34 Fed. 873; 27 R. C. L., pages 856, 857; 1 Bishop’s New Crim. Proc., §1015a. Thus, the adoption of the correct procedure would avoid the difficulty suggested in the majority opinion. It also would have avoided the difficulty arising in the present case, for, as the court has said, in this case the charg*es in the several counts are identical. *32Care on the part of district attorneys in preparing in-formations and indictments, and on the part of trial courts in submitting cases to the jury, would avoid situations such as the one presented in the assumed case and by the record in this case.
I find no warrant in the Dunn case for overruling the Webb case. The opinion in the Webb case, however, indicates that the decision should be overruled in part. It holds, what is obvious, that in the situation existing in that case ‘ ‘ the two verdicts are irreconcilable, each flatly contradicts, is repugnant to, and destroys the other.” It seems clear that as both verdicts were destroyed, they had no validity and could not support a judgment of either conviction or acquittal. Both verdicts were nullities and neither could support a plea of former jeopardy. Where such irreconcilable, contradictory, repugnant verdicts are returned, there is a mistrial. In the Webb case, however, we ordered the discharge of the defendant, holding that if the case were sent back for a new trial the defendant could successfully plead former jeopardy. The two holdings being inconsistent, Ave can, and should, accept the reasonable and reject the unreasonable.
Where, notwithstanding the Adgilance of the district attorney and of the trial court, there is presented to us a situation such as this record discloses, justice to both the defendant and the people would be best served by reversing the judgment and remanding* the case for a neAY trial. Such was the course followed in Rosenthal v. United States, 276 Fed. 714; Speiller v. United States, 31 Fed. (2d) 682; State v. Akers, 278 Mo. 368, 213 S. W. 424; People v. Harrigan, 218 Mich. 235, 187 N. W. 306. The last two cases were cited Avith approval in the Webb case. The dissenting justice in the Dunn case said that in his opinion the authorities establish as well-settled “that when, upon an indictment charging the same offense in different counts, the jury acquits as to one and convicts on the other defendant is entitled to a neAv trial.” In State v. Akers, supra, which, as has been noted, was *33cited with, approval in the Webb case, the court said: “It will be noted that each count of the information charges appellant with the identical crime. The verdict finds him guilty under the first count and not guilty under the second count. The verdict is entirely inconsistent, because the jury could not have legally found what their verdict says they did find. Appellant was either guilty or not guilty of the crime, and could not have been both as found by the jury. We therefore think the verdict is too contradictory to support a judgment of conviction. The somewhat more difficult question now arises, what shall be done with the appellant? Shall he be ordered discharged or should the cause be remanded for a new trial? In the case of State v. Headrick, 179 Mo. 300, under a very similar verdict it was held: (1) That the verdict ‘is inconsistent and contradictory and cannot be permitted to stand.’ (2) That the portion of the verdict finding the defendant not guilty under one count operated as a bar to a conviction upon the other count, and that, therefore, the defendant was entitled to be discharged, which was accordingly ordered. With that portion of the opinion in the Headrick case holding the verdict should not be permitted to stand because contradictory (and therefore the same as no verdict) we readily agree and have applied the rule thus announced in the case at bar. But with the portion of the above mentioned opinion holding’ that such a verdict operates as a bar to a further prosecution and authorizes a discharge of the prisoner we are unable to agree. If the verdict in the Headrick case was too inconsistent to support a judgment of conviction it was likewise too inconsistent to support a judgment of acquittal. As has often been said, ‘it is a poor rule which does not work both ways.’ * * * The verdict held in review in the Headrick case and likewise the verdict in the case at bar, as has been pointed out above, are too contradictory to be considered a verdict either of conviction or acquittal. We are therefore of the opinion that the decision in the Headrick case, in *34so far as it held that the appellant therein was, under the circumstances, entitled to he discharged, should be overruled. Since the verdict in the case at bar was not sufficient to sustain either a judgment of conviction or a judgment of acquittal it necessarily follows that the judgment should be reversed and the cause remanded for a new trial.” The procedure followed in that case is reasonable and fair. It protects the substantial rights of defendants in criminal cases, and, what is of no less importance, it also protects the rights of the people.
So far as the Webb case holds that irreconcilable, contradictory, repugnant verdicts destroy each other, it should be followed; so far as it holds that such verdicts entitle the defendant to a discharge, it should be overruled.
Prom the foregoing considerations, I conclude that the judgment should be reversed and the cause remanded for a new trial.