Court Opinion

ID: 9654798
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 18:51:18.632049+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:13.637775
License: Public Domain

George Rose Smith, Justice, concurring. Í agree that the additional seven-year sentence imposed by the trial judge must be. set aside. There were clearly two procedural defects in the court below. First, the charge of robbery by the use of a firearm should have been included in the information, to satisfy the constitutional requirement that the accused be informed of the nature of the accusation against him. Ark. Const., Art. 2, § 10. A simple charge of robbery is not the same thing as a charge of robbery by the use of a firéarm, any more than a charge of assault is the same thing as a charge of assault with a deadly weapon. Secondly, the court should not have taken away from the jury the matter of imposing an additional sentence under Act 78 of 1969; Ark. Stat. Ann. § 43-2336 (Supp. 1969). It is quite possible that the jury considered the employment of the firearm in fixing the fifteen-year sentence, in which case the nial judge’s imposition of a second punishment for the same offense violated the prohibition against double jeopardy. I disagree with the majority opinion, however, in that I believe that in this instance we, should pass upon the validity of Act 78 and should hold it to be constitutional. The issue is argued in the briefs and is a matter of public interest in the administration of the criminal law throughout the state. It is almost a certainty that the validity of the act will eventually be before us in some future case. There is no good reason for deferring our decision when by so doing we make it possible for other cases to be needlessly reversed and needlessly retried. On the merits, the challenged provision in Act 78 is that clause which permits an additional period of confinement, up to seven years, to be imposed in firearm cases "in the discretion of the sentencing court.” It is argued that such a charge involves a disputed question of fact that must be submitted to a jury rather than to a judge. It seems to me that the statutory phrase, "the sentencing court,” should be construed to refer either to the judge or to the jury, as the case may be. Ordinarily the judge fixes the sentence in a criminal case, but the judge may do so if the jurors are unable to agree upon the punishment or if the case is tried by agreement without a jury. In criminal trials in Arkansas the “court” ordinarily is composed of judge and jury. In that situation a statutory reference to the court has frequently been held to refer to the jury alone, if that is what the statute really means. Road Dist. No. 4 v. Frailey, 313 Ill. 568, 145 N. E. 195 (1924); Missouri Pac. Ry. v. Merrill, 40 Kan. 404, 19 P. 793 (1888); People v. Barrett, 56 Hun 351, 9 N. Y. S. 321 (1890); Holland Banking Co. v. Dicks, 67 Okl. 228, 170 P. 253 (1917). In the case at bar the phrase, “the sentencing court,” has no established meaning in the law. The legislature, however, obviously meant something by the term. It seems plain to me that the statute should be construed to refer either to the judge or to the jury, whichever is appropriate in the particular case. In that view the law is constitutional, and I would so hold.