Court Opinion

ID: 9516844
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 23:53:59.45289+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:39:33.528680
License: Public Domain

DeBRULER, Justice,
concurring and dis- | senting.
In U.S. v. Halper, 490 U.S. 435, 109 S.Ct. 1892, 104 L.Ed.2d 487 (1989) and Montana v. Kurth Ranch, - U.S. --, 114 S.Ct. 1937, 128 L.Ed.2d 767 (1994), the complaints had already been punished as a result of a prior criminal prosecution when the governments exercised their taxing and sanctioning authority. The Supreme Court ruled in both cases that the exercise of that authority could constitute a second punishment in violation of double jeopardy. Here, by contrast, the state exercised its taxing and sanctioning *310authority before appellant Bryant was placed in jeopardy in court. The manner in which that taxing and sanctioning authority was exercised by Indiana revenue agents was normal for processes followed where controlled and regulated substances are involved. In my view, case law does not command the conclusion that those processes constituted a first punishment under the Double Jeopardy Clause. I would therefore affirm all of appellant's convictions.
To be sure, the legal signposts do not all point in the same direction. The large amount of the controlled substance excise tax and the fact that the tax is upon an illegal activity do tend to support the conclusion that it is a first jeopardy punishment under the Double Jeopardy Clause. However, those factors are lessened in value since the tax promotes the legitimate tax purposes of deterring a socially undesirable activity and raising revenue from what we know can be a highly profitable, clandestine, commercial enterprise. While the tax looks radically high as applied to marijuana, it looks less radical when applied to other controlled substances such as LSD and the opium derivatives, which are lighter in weight and more expensive on the black market.
In prosecutions of unlawful possession of other highly regulated substances such as liquor and cigarettes, it is ordinary for the criminal prosecution for possession of untaxed liquor or cigarettes to be viewed only as a first jeopardy even though the tax with penalty was paid during the pendency of the criminal proceeding. See Ind.Code Ann. § 7.1-5-4-1 (West 1982); Ind.Code Ann. § 6-7-1-24 (West 1989). Such payment is a wise choice since it might persuade a prosecutor not to pursue a conviction, or might serve as a mitigator in the judicial determination of a proper sentence. Such payment is not regarded as a first jeopardy punishment.
Finally, an assessment issued from within the revenue department operates under the majority opinion to foreclose exercise of the police power expressed in the tax statute via the local prosecuting attorney. That power is of the highest essential order, and I am reluctant to embrace such a shift of it, except in the clearest of cireumstances.