Court Opinion

ID: 9857647
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 15:50:40.972842+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:52:37.151710
License: Public Domain

TEAGUE, Judge,
dissenting.
Believing that this Court correctly ruled on original submision that William Herron, Jr., henceforth applicant, was entitled to relief under the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment to the Federal Con*631stitution, I respectfully dissent to this Court's majority refusing him relief on State’s Motion for Rehearing. I adopt this Court’s opinion on original submission, and make same a part of this dissenting opinion. See “Exhibit A.”
EXHIBIT A
OPINION
This is a post-conviction application for the writ of habeas corpus filed by William Herron, Jr., hereinafter applicant, that is before this Court pursuant to the provisions of Article 11.07, Sec. 2, Y.A.C.C.P.
Applicant asserts in his application that an aggravated robbery conviction that he sustained in 1984 when he was tried in a consolidated trial for the offenses of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery should be set aside pursuant to the Double Jeopardy Clauses of the Federal and State Constitutions. Finding that we are in agreement with applicant, we will grant him relief.
The indictment for aggravating kidnapping alleges, in pertinent part, that applicant “did then and there unlawfully intentionally and knowingly restrain [the Complainant], by using and threatening to use deadly force with intent to prevent the liberation of the Complainant, and with intent to facilitate the commission of the felony of robbery. (Our emphasis). One of the ways that the offense of aggravated kidnapping may be committed is when a person intentionally or knowingly abducts another person with the intent to facilitate the commission of a felony. V.T. C.A., Penal Code, sec. 20.04.
The indictment for aggravated robbery alleges, in pertinent part, that applicant “did then and there unlawfully, while in the course of committing theft of property owned by [the Complainant], and with intent to obtain and maintain control of the property, intentionally and knowingly threaten and place the Complainant in fear of imminent bodily injury and death, by using and exhibiting a deadly weapon, namely, a firearm.” (Our emphasis.) One of the ways that the offense of aggravated robbery may be committed is when a person, in the course of committing theft, and with intent to obtain or maintain control of the property, intentionally or knowingly threatens or places another in fear of imminent bodily injury or death, and uses or exhibits a deadly weapon. V.T.C.A., Penal Code, Sec. 29.03.
The facts reflect that applicant and another individual took control of the complainant’s car at gun point and while driving the complainant around the City of Houston, robbed her of her money, watch, and ring. The applicant and his companion subsequently released the complainant but kept possession of her car, a gold 1978 Mercury Cougar, license number RGZ854. The facts clearly reflect that the two offenses arose out of one continuous transaction, against the same victim on the same date, and involved the taking of property from the same person.
As previously pointed out, applicant was separately indicted for the offenses of aggravated kidnapping and aggravated robbery, and after a consolidated trial was convicted of each offense.
The trial judge assessed punishment for the aggravated kidnapping offense at 20 years’ confinement in the Department of Corrections1 and 75 years’ confinement in the Department of Corrections for the aggravated robbery offense. The First (Houston) Court of Appeals affirmed both convictions in an unpublished opinion. See Herron v. State, Nos. 01-84-590-CR and 01-84-591-Cr, August 15, 1985. Applicant’s petition for discretionary review was refused by this Court on October 8, 1986, without written comment or opinion. See Herron v. State, Court of Criminal Appeals No. 1085-85. The Double Jeopardy claim presented in this cause was not presented on direct appeal. However, in Ex Parte Bowman, 523 S.W.2d 677 (Tex.Cr.App.1975), this Court permitted the raising of a *632double jeopardy claim through post-conviction habeas corpus, and granted the defendant relief in that cause.
The federal constitutional Double Jeopardy Clause has been interpreted to mean that the State is prohibited from twice prosecuting an individual after acquittal or conviction. It also prohibits the imposition of multiple punishments for the same offense. An acquittal has been defined as a resolution, whatever its label, of some or all of the factual elements of the offense charged. Sanabria v. United States, 437 U.S. 54, 64, 98 S.Ct. 2170, 57 L.Ed.2d 43 (1978); Smalis v. Pennsylvania, 476 U.S. 140, 106 S.Ct. 1745, 90 L.Ed.2d 116 (1986); Illinois v. Vitale, 447 U.S. 410, 100 S.Ct. 2260, 65 L.Ed.2d 228 (1980); Brown v. Ohio, 432 U.S. 161, 97 S.Ct. 2221, 53 L.Ed.2d 187 (1977); North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969). See also Ashe v. Swenson, 397 U.S. 436, 90 S.Ct. 1189, 25 L.Ed.2d 469 (1970), (holding that the Federal Double Jeopardy Clause incorporates collateral estoppel as a constitutional requirement.)
The Federal Constitutional guarantee against double jeopardy is applicable to the States through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Benton v. Maryland, 395 U.S. 784, 89 S.Ct. 2056, 23 L.Ed.2d 707 (1969).
As previously pointed out, the facts reflect that the aggravated kidnapping offense and the aggravated robbery offense arose out of one continuous transaction, against the same victim on the same date, and involved the taking of property from the same person.
In Ex Parte McWilliams, 634 S.W.2d 815, 822-824 (Tex.Cr.App.1982) (opinion on rehearing) a majority of this Court voted to abandon the doctrine of carving, a judicially created principle which prohibited successive prosecutions for offenses, even though separate and distinct, which arose from the same transaction and required the same basic evidence for conviction. The carving doctrine prohibited the State from carving more than one conviction out of a continuous assaultive act committed upon the same person during the same transaction.
The majority in Ex Parte McWilliams, id, opted for the “Blockburger rule” as the test to resolve jeopardy problems. Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 52 S.Ct. 180, 76 L.Ed. 306 (1932). The Supreme Court of the United States in that case, however, only laid down a test to be used to determine what the federal legislative intent was with regard to multiple punishments in a single trial when the indictment alleges offenses in two or more counts, and the act or transaction from which the offenses arose violates at'least two distinct statutory provisions.
The applicable rule is that, where the same act or transaction constitutes a violation of two distinct statutory provisions, the test to be applied to determine whether there are two offenses or only one is whether each provision requires proof of an additional fact which the other does not.
Id. 284 U.S. at 304, 52 S.Ct. at 182.
In May v. State, 726 S.W.2d 573 (Tex.Cr.App.1987), a unanimous Court pointed out the following which was apparently overlooked by the majority in McWilliams, 634 S.W.2d 815:
Although McWilliams noticed opinions of the Supreme Court after Blockburger dealing “with other double jeopardy matters”, it considered them “matters not pertinent to the decision in this case.” (Footnote deleted). As will be shown, however, they are in this case.
Since McWilliams we have been given to understand that when one act or transaction violates two distinct statutory provisions, “the Blockburger test” is purely a rule of statutory construction, utilized in what is “essentially a factual inquiry as to legislative intent [rather than] a conclusive presumption of law.” (Citations deleted). Whether by Blockburger or other means a court has determined that the legislative body intended punishment for both offenses, it then must decide whether successive prosecutions are barred by the Double Jeopardy Clause, *633and in order “ ‘to properly analyze that issue, we must examine not only the statute ..., but also the charges which form the basis of the Government’s prosecution here.’ ” (Citations deleted).
May, 726 S.W.2d at 574.
This Court in May, id. at 577 also held: “The Court will adhere to McWilliams in so far as it abandoned the carving doctrine, but to say that it correctly adopted Block-burger as the sole test for determining jeopardy where an act or transaction violates two separate and distinct statutes is to ignore a whole body of jeopardy law to the contrary.”
Recently in Simmons v. State, 745 S.W.2d 348 (Tex.Cr.App.1987), this Court was presented with the situation where the defendant had been convicted of two aggravated robberies of two different victims. However, the same common element, theft of money from one victim, was used in the prosecution of both offenses, which prosecution occurred at separate times. The defendant claimed that the state should not have prosecuted him for the second aggravated robbery because “the theft of Nichols’ money was identical to that used to convict him of the Sawyers robbery”, i.e., this proof had already been presented when appellant was tried and convicted for the aggravated robbery of Sawyers. Thus, the defendant argued that the same theft evidence was used in both cases which thereby placed him in jeopardy twice for the same offense. This Court pointed out that “[t]he only difference between the two indictments was the name of the person placed in the fear of imminent injury.” An almost unanimous Court sustained the defendant’s contention, relying upon Ex parte Crosby, 703 S.W.2d 683 (Tex.Cr.App.1986), in which there were no dissents or dissenting or concurring opinions, as its aythority, and held: “The facts in the instant case are identical except for the person alleged to have been placed in fear of imminent bodily harm. Thus, the law as set forth in Crosby, controls our disposition of this case.”
In Crosby, id. this Court held the following:
The penal code makes it clear that theft is an integral part of the offense of aggravated robbery. In the instant case only one theft of one person occurred. Thus, only one aggravated robbery can have taken place. Applicants appropriated property belonging to W.H. Thurston. The fact that they assaulted more than one person in the course of that theft does not mean that more than one aggravated robbery took place. Perhaps applicants should have been indicted and convicted for an additional aggravated robbery.
This Court also pointed out in Simmons that “A second basis for reversal is found in January v. State, 695 S.W.2d 215 (Tex.App.-13th 1985), affirmed on State’s petition for discretionary review in January v. State 732 S.W.2d 632, at 632 (Tex.Cr.App.1987),” in which this Court unanimously stated the following:
We have reviewed that part of the Court of Appeals’ opinion dealing with the merits of the jeopardy issue (asterisk omitted) and find (sic) it to be sound. See May v. State, 726 S.W.2d 573 (Tex.Cr.App.1987). We therefore adopt that part of the opinion as our own, without further comment. The judgment of the Court of Appeals is affirmed.
The facts that are set out in the Corpus Christi Court of Appeals’ opinion of January reflect that the defendant was indicted by separate indictments for the aggravated kidnapping of another individual and attempted capital murder of that same individual. The defendant’s request that the indictments be consolidated for trial purposes was denied, after which the defendant was convicted in separate trials of both offenses. He was first convicted of the aggravated kidnapping offense, and was thereafter convicted of the attempted capital murder offense. The defendant did not file any “double jeopardy plea” to the second trial. The evidence presented at the aggravated kidnapping offense was in all things identical to that presented at the later attempted capital murder offense. *634The defendant claimed on appeal from the attempted capital murder conviction that the State was precluded by the Double Jeopardy Clauses from prosecuting him for that offense, because of his earlier conviction for the aggravated kidnapping offense. The court of appeals agreed with the defendant and sustained his contention.
The Corpus Christi Court of Appeals first pointed out that the question of former jeopardy is so fundamental in nature that it may be raised for the first time on appeal. See also Jones v. State, 586 S.W.2d 542, 544 (Tex.Cr.App.1979). The court of appeals next held that the double jeopardy test announced in Blockburger (Held, jeopardy protections prohibit multiple punishments unless one offense requires proof of a fact which the other does not), was not the only test to apply to double jeopardy determinations. [See also the discussion of Blockburger that is found in May v. State (Held, “the Blockburger test” is purely a rule of statutory construction utilized in what is essentially a factual inquiry as to legislative intent [rather than] a conclusive presumption of law ...)] The court of appeals concluded that the Block-búrger test focuses upon the statutory elements of the two offenses involved and the In re Nielsen, 131 U.S. 176, 9 S.Ct. 672, 33 L.Ed. 118 (1889), test, i.e., “A person who has been tried and convicted for a crime which has various incidents included in it ... cannot be a second time tried for one of the incidents without being twice put in jeopardy for the same offense,” 131 U.S. at 188, 9 S.Ct. at 676, focuses upon the factual issues already resolved by the first trial. The court of appeals also correctly held that in addition to the Blockburger analysis, the Double Jeopardy Clauses prohibit the State from seeking successive prosecutions when the subsequent prosecution requires proof of an incident already litigated in the first prosecution. The court of appeals then sustained the defendant’s contention that the State was prohibited from prosecuting him for the attempted capital murder case.
By creatively choosing which elements it hoped to prove by the same evidence, the State was able to convict appellant for two aggravated offenses in two prosecutions, wherein the aggravating element for each offense was the other offense ... (223).
This Court also unanimously held that a prosecution for involuntary manslaughter arising out of an automobile accident was barred by double jeopardy, given the fact that a prior conviction for driving while intoxicated arising out of the same accident had previously occurred. Ex parte Peterson, 738 S.W.2d 688 (Tex.Cr.App.1987)..
In this instance, the record is clear that the State sought two convictions at one time, which, for double jeopardy purposes, is the equivalent to subsequent prosecutions. The robbery subject in the aggravated kidnapping offense is the same robbery underlying the aggravated robbery offense and the proof adduced to establish the aggravated kidnapping offense was in all things identical to the proof necessary to establish the aggravated robbery offense. Therefore, the January, * * * * * prohibition against relitigation of a common incident applies. Alternatively, since the State was not seeking multiple punishments, the Blockburger analysis is not dispositive. The State’s observation that the aggravated robbery offense required proof of a fact unnecessary to establish aggravated kidnapping is irrelevant. Given the fact that both of the instant offenses require proof of robbery, the January prohibition applies.
Therefore, in light of what we have previously stated, the State violated applicant’s right to be free from double jeopardy in obtaining two convictions which involved proof of the same common incident. The trial judge was prohibited by the Double Jeopardy Clauses from entering a judgment of conviction for the aggravated robbery offense after he had entered the judgment of conviction for the aggravated kidnapping offense.
Applicant is entitled to relief. The judgment in the Harris County cause styled The State of Texas v. William Herron, Jr., bear*635ing number 407,817, the higher cause number, is hereby set aside, and the indictment in that cause is ordered dismissed. The judgment in the Harris County cause styled The State of Texas v. William Her-ron, Jr., bearing 407,816, the lower cause number, remains in full force and effect.
A copy of this opinion will be forwarded by the Clerk of this Court to the Department of Corrections and to the District Clerk of Harris County.
PER CURIAM
EN BANC
DELIVERED: May 11, 1988
DO NOT PUBLISH
ONION, P.J., and DAVIS, CAMPBELL and WHITE, JJ., concur.
McCORMICK, MILLER and DUNCAN, JJ., dissent.

. Now called the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Institutional and Board of Pardons and Paroles Division.