Court Opinion

ID: 9503284
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-06 19:40:04.354875+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:03:21.909430
License: Public Domain

KISTLER, J.,
concurring.
Defendant took a watch from Fred Meyer. In the course of doing so, he threatened to stab a store employee with a knife and was assisted by another person who was present. That conduct, the jury found, violated two alternative means of committing second-degree robbery, and the question in this case is whether defendant may be punished for only one offense or two. The answer to that question turns, as the majority recognizes, on whether each alternative means of committing second-degree robbery is a separate “statutory provision” for the purposes of ORS 161.067(1), which defines when the same conduct or criminal episode will give rise to separately punishable offenses. 1
*292In a series of decisions over the past 20 years, this court has interpreted the phrase “statutory provision” that the legislature used in ORS 161.067(1), and the majority attempts to reconcile and refine those decisions in the course of determining whether each alternative means of committing second-degree robbery is a separate statutory provision. Those decisions, the majority concludes, require the court to determine, based on the text, context, and the legislative history of the robbery statutes, whether the “legislature intended to create a single crime or two crimes.” 346 Or at 283. The majority explains that, among other things, that inquiry “includes consideration of whether [two different statutory] sections, although addressing different [legislative] concerns, may also address, on a more general level, one unified legislative objective.” Id. Applying that test, the majority determines that, in providing alternative means of committing second-degree robbery, the legislature intended to create only one crime.
The majority appropriately synthesizes and follows our precedents, and I join its opinion. I write separately because, in my view, focusing solely on what our past decisions have said about a statute can sometimes cause us to lose sight of the statutory text that underlies those decisions, and it is occasionally helpful to return to the text, context, and history of a statute to determine whether our decisions have drifted away from the legislature’s intent.* 2 In my view, an examination of the text, context, and history of ORS 161.067 leads to a simpler and less subjective interpretation of the phrase “statutory provision” than a synthesis of our cases yields. Those sources demonstrate that each crime *293identified as such in the criminal code constitutes a separate statutory provision and the fact that there are alternative means of committing those crimes does not make each alternative means a separate provision within the meaning of ORS 161.067(1).
ORS 161.067 has three subsections. The first subsection, which is at issue in this case, identifies the number of separately punishable offenses that exist when the same conduct or criminal episode violates “two or more statutory provisions.” ORS 161.067(1). The second subsection identifies the number of separately punishable offenses that exist when the same conduct or criminal episode violates one statutory provision but involves two or more victims. ORS 161.067(2). Finally, the third subsection identifies the number of separately punishable offenses that exist when the same conduct or criminal episode violates one statutory provision, involves one victim, “but nevertheless involves repeated violations of the same statutory provision against the same victim.” ORS 161.067(3).
Each subsection of ORS 161.067 refers to violating one or more “statutory provisions.” However, neither the criminal code generally nor the text of ORS 161.067 specifically defines what constitutes a “statutory provision,” and the word “provision” is broad enough to include either a section defining a crime or a single clause within that section. Cf. Webster’s Third New Int’l Dictionary 1827 (unabridged ed 2002) (defining “provision” as “a stipulation (as a clause in a statute or contract) made in advance: PROVISO * * * <this - is one of fundamental importance in our legal... system * * *>”). The text, in short, is of little help. The legislature appears to have assumed that the phrase had such a well-understood meaning that no definition was necessary.
Two separate contextual sources, however, provide a clearer picture of the legislature’s intent. The first contextual source is an exception to ORS 161.067(3), which illustrates the legislature’s understanding of the phrase “statutory provision.” After identifying how many separately punishable offenses exist when the same criminal episode violates one statutory provision, involves one victim, but also involves *294multiple violations of the same provision against the same victim, ORS 161.067(3) sets out the following exception:
“Each method of engaging in deviate sexual intercourse as defined in ORS 163.305, and each method of engaging in unlawful sexual penetration as defined in ORS 163.408 and 163.411 shall constitute separate violations of their respective statutory provisions for purposes of determining the number of statutory violations.”
The exception is telling in three respects. First, it identifies ORS 163.408 and ORS 163.411 as “statutory provisions.” The first statute (ORS 163.408) defines the crime of unlawful sexual penetration in the second degree, and the second statute (ORS 163.411) defines the crime of unlawful sexual penetration in the first degree. That context suggests that each crime identified as such in the criminal code constitutes a separate statutory provision and that, as a general rule, the fact that there may be alternative methods of committing each of those crimes does not make each alternative method of commission a separate statutory provision. Were the general rule otherwise, there would have been no need to add a caveat to ORS 161.067(3) and state that each method of committing unlawful sexual penetration “shall constitute separate violations of their respective statutory provisions for purposes of determining the number of statutory violations.”
The texts of the two unlawful sexual penetration statutes shed further light on the meaning of the phrase “statutory provision” in ORS 161.067. Both unlawful sexual penetration statutes identify multiple methods of committing that crime. A person commits the crime of unlawful sexual penetration in the second degree “if the person penetrates the vagina, anus or penis of another wfth [a foreign object] * * * and the victim is under 14 years of age.” ORS 163.408(1). A person commits the crime of unlawful sexual penetration in the first degree “if the person penetrates the vagina, anus or penis of another with [a foreign object]” and
“(a) The victim is subjected to forcible compulsion;
“(b) The victim is under 12 years of age; or
*295“(c) The victim is incapable of consent by reason of mental defect, mental incapacitation or physical helplessness.”
ORS 161.411(1).
Those two statutes and the statement in ORS 161.067(3) that each of those statutes is a statutory provision lead to two additional conclusions regarding the meaning of the phrase “statutory provision.” First, when the legislature creates two crimes with different degrees of seriousness (first-degree unlawful sexual penetration, second-degree unlawful sexual penetration, and the like), each statutorily designated degree of a crime is a separate statutory provision. And, when one act violates two statutory provisions, the only question under ORS 161.067(1) is whether each provision, as charged, requires proof of an element that the other does not. If it does, then there are as many separately punishable offenses as there are separate statutory violations. ORS 161.067(1).
Second, the fact that a crime, such as first-degree unlawful sexual penetration, identifies multiple ways in which the crime may be committed does not mean that one act will give rise to multiple statutory violations. For example, in addition to identifying multiple methods (insertion of a foreign object into a victim’s vagina, anus, or penis) of committing unlawful sexual penetration, ORS 161.411(1) also identifies multiple ways in which a person can come within the class of victims whose injury elevates those acts to first-degree unlawful sexual penetration — forcible compulsion, being under the age of 12, or being incapable of consent by reason of mental defect, mental incapacitation, or physical helplessness. Yet, ORS 161.067(3) makes clear that the legislature understood that first-degree unlawful sexual penetration was a single statutory provision and that only multiple methods of committing unlawful penetration would result in multiple statutory violations (and even that was an exception to the general rule). It follows that, for the crime of first-degree unlawful sexual penetration, the fact that the victim was under the age of 12 and also subjected to forcible compulsion does not mean that a single act of penetration
*296would violate two statutory provisions within the meaning of ORS 161.067(1).
Not only does the exception in ORS 161.067(3) provide insight into the meaning of the phrase “statutory provision,” but two cases that preceded the enactment of ORS 161.067 provide additional context. In State v. Woolard, 259 Or 232, 484 P2d 314, on reh’g, 485 P2d 1194 (1971), and in State v. Cloutier, 286 Or 579, 596 P2d 1278 (1979), the court held that a defendant who committed burglary and theft (when theft was the intended crime on entry into the house) could be punished for only one offense. In Woolard, the court inferred from the fact that burglary carried a greater sentence than theft from a dwelling that the legislature intended that the former offense would subsume the latter. 259 Or at 237-38. In Cloutier, the court looked to whether the defendant had a single criminal objective in deciding whether the two crimes constituted only one punishable offense. 286 Or at 596-97. Justice Tongue dissented in Cloutier. He explained that, before Woolard and Cloutier, the rule was clear: When one act violated two separate statutes, such as burglary and theft, and each contained an element that the other did not, there were two separately punishable offenses. Id. at 605 (Tongue, J., dissenting). In his view, the court erred in Woolard and again in Cloutier in departing from that rule.3
ORS 161.067(1) reinstates the rule that Justice Tongue advocated in Cloutier. It reverses the rule from Woolard and Cloutier that a single act that violates two criminal statutes, such as burglary and theft, will result in only one punishable offense if the two violations are in furtherance of a single criminal objective. There is no reason, however, to think that the legislature intended to go farther than that in reversing the rule in Woolard and Cloutier and make alternative ways of committing a single crime separately punishable offenses; rather, the most natural interpretation of the phrase “two or more statutory provisions” is that it refers to the sort of statutes defining separate criminal *297offenses, such as burglary and theft, that were at issue in Woolard and Cloutier.
The legislative history supports that understanding. See State v. Gaines, 346 Or 160, 172, 206 P3d 1042 (2009) (“Legislative history may be used to confirm seemingly plain meaning and even to illuminate it * * *.”). The legislative history of ORS 161.067 is unique because, as the court noted in State v. Crotsley, 308 Or 272, 779 P2d 600 (1989), the legislature enacted one version of the statute in 1985 and the people reenacted by initiative a second, almost identical version of the statute in 1986. Id. at 276 n 3. The two versions differ in one respect. The 1985 statute provided, as does the 1986 reenactment, that, when the same conduct or criminal episode violated two or more statutory provisions, there were as many separately punishable offenses as there were separate statutory violations. Or Laws 1985, ch 722, § 4(1); Or Laws 1987, ch 2, § 13(1). The 1985 statute then added the following exception, which the 1986 reenactment omitted:
“However, when one of the statutory provisions violated is burglary in any degree, and the other statutory provision violated is theft or criminal mischief in any degree, and the theft or criminal mischief was pleaded as the intended crime of the burglary, the burglary and the theft or criminal mischief shall constitute only one punishable offense.”
Or Laws 1985, ch 722, § 4(1). The 1985 exception preserves the specific holding in Woolard and Cloutier, while the 1986 reenactment omits that exception and thus “overrules” the holdings in those cases.4 But more importantly for the purposes of this case, the 1985 exception equates the phrase “statutory provision” with the crimes of “burglary in any degree” and “theft or criminal mischief in any degree.” Put differently, the exception makes clear that the 1985 legislature understood that each degree of burglary, theft, and criminal mischief constituted a separate statutory provision, in much the same way that the exception to ORS 161.067(3) makes that same understanding clear.
*298Finally, the explanation to the legislature of the 1985 bill leads to the same conclusion. A spokesperson for the Oregon District Attorneys Association explained that the 1985 counterpart to what is now codified as ORS 161.067(1) “adopts the federal rule first announced in U.S. v. Blockburger, 284 U.S. 299 (1932), permitting separate convictions for each proven statutory violation, provided that each statute requires proof of an element not required by others.” Testimony, Senate Judiciary Committee, SB 257, May 15, 1985, Ex G (statement of Peter F. Sandrock, Jr.).5
Beyond identifying Blockburger as the apparent source of what is now ORS 161.067(1), Sandrock’s letter does not explain what, in his view, constitutes a “statutory provision.” However, in Blockburger, the Court used the phrase consistently with the definition set out above. Specifically, the Court explained in Blockburger that the Harrison Narcotic Act, Pub L No 223, 38 Stat 785 (1914) (repealed 1970), created two separate criminal offenses. One offense made it unlawful to sell narcotics except in the original stamped package. 284 US at 203-04. The other offense made it unlawful to sell narcotics without a written order. Id. The Court described the two crimes as “distinct statutory provisions” and ruled that, because a single sale of narcotics violated both provisions and because each provision required proof of a fact that the other did not, the defendant’s single sale gave rise to two separate offenses. 284 US at 304. As the Court used the phrase “statutory provision” in Blockburger, that phrase means nothing more or less than what the legislature has defined as a crime.6
*299In my view, the text, context, and history of ORS 161.067 reveal that the phrase “statutory provision” has a more straightforward meaning than our cases have given it. When the legislature makes it a crime to commit certain acts, each statutorily defined crime is a separate statutory provision, and each degree of that crime is a statutory provision. The fact that the legislature identifies alternative ways to commit a crime does not mean that the legislature has created more than one statutory provision, however.
Not only is that interpretation truer to the legislature’s intent than the test that the majority draws from our cases, but it also is more certain in its application (both for the courts and the legislature when it drafts criminal statutes). Beyond that, it is consistent with the results in this court’s decisions. When, as in Crotsley, the state charges a defendant with first- and third-degree rape, each degree of the crime is a separate statutory provision that will give rise to separately punishable offenses, provided that each provision requires proof of an element that the other does not. Cf. Crotsley, 308 Or at 278-79 (holding that the two offenses were separate statutory provisions because they addressed separate and distinct legislative concerns). Conversely, when the legislature provides alternative means of committing a specified crime, there is only one statutory provision. It follows that, when in State v. Kizer, 308 Or 238, 779 P2d 604 (1989), State v. Barrett, 331 Or 27, 10 P3d 901 (2000), State v. White, 341 Or 624, 147 P3d 313 (2006), and this case, the state charges and proves both alternative means, only one statutory provision has been violated and there is only one separately punishable offense (assuming of course that there are not multiple victims or repeated violations of the same provision). Because I agree with the result that the majority reaches and because I cannot disagree with its reliance on precedent, I concur in the majority’s opinion.
Walters and Linder, JJ., join in this opinion.

 ORS 161.067(1) provides:
“When the same conduct or criminal episode violates two or more statutory provisions and each provision requires proof of an element that the others do *292not, there are as many separately punishable offenses as there are separate statutory violations.”

 An examination of those sources is particularly appropriate in this case because the two seminal cases that we have spent the last 20 years interpreting did not engage in a textual and contextual analysis of ORS 161.067(1). In State v. Crotsley, 308 Or 272, 779 P2d 600 (1989), the court posited, without further explanation, that the phrase “ ‘two or more statutory provisions’ * * * include[s] prohibitions such as those in this case that address separate and distinct legislative concerns,” id. at 278, a statement that the majority today disavows as an answer to the meaning of that phrase, 346 Or at 289. In State v. Kizer, 308 Or 238, 779 P2d 604 (1989), the court found it unnecessary to engage in any analysis of ORS 161.067(1), resting its decision instead on the legislature’s statement that uttering a forged instrument and making one were a single crime. Id. at 242-43.

 Justice Howell concurred in the result in Cloutier. 286 Or at 603. He noted that he had dissented in Woolard and that “[a]ny further expression of dissent would be a futility.” Id. (Howell, J., specially concurring).

 The 1985 legislative bill was codified as ORS 161.062, and the 1986 initiated measure was codified as ORS 161.067. Initially, both statutes “remainfed] on the books.” Crotsley, 308 Or at 276 n 3. However, in 1999, the legislature repealed ORS 161.062, leaving ORS 161.067 in place. Or Laws 1999, ch 136, § 1.

 The Court explained in Blockburger:
“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 a fact which the other does not.”
284 US at 304.

 As noted, the people reenacted the 1985 statute in 1986 but omitted the exception discussed above. The official explanation for the measure states that that part of the measure “[s]lightly expandís] the circumstances under which a person may be convicted of separate offenses.” Voters’ Pamphlet, General Election, Nov 4, 1986, 52. That explanation accurately describes the difference between the 1986 measure and the 1985 statute but sheds no additional light on the meaning of the phrase “statutory provision.”