State v. Moeller
State v. Moeller
Opinion of the Court
The single issue presented by this appeal is whether the trial court erred in denying the defendant’s motion to dismiss, thus overruling the defendant’s claim that a state prosecution, following a federal court jury acquittal regarding essentially the same alleged criminal conduct, would violate certain of the defendant’s rights secured by the state and federal constitutions.
We briefly recite those facts necessary to a resolution of this issue: On the evening of March 1, 1975, a fire totally destroyed a large manufacturing fácil
Thereafter, on May 3, 1977, the defendant was charged in the Superior Court, in a two-count information, with conspiracy to commit arson in the first and second degrees, in violation of §§ 53a-48, 53a-111 and 53a-112 of the General Statutes, for his alleged participation in the Shelton Sponge Rubber Products Company fire. The state’s application for a bench warrant, the supporting affidavit, and the subsequently filed information make clear that the same conspiracy as charged in the federal indictment is involved in the pending state prosecution. The defendant pleaded not guilty to the information. On May 25, 1977, the defendant filed a motion to dismiss the information based upon the “double jeopardy” provision of the fifth amendment to the United States constitution,
Both the defendant and the state have assisted the court in focusing sharply upon the issue to be resolved; the parties have candidly argued and thoroughly researched the legal principles that must, of necessity, illuminate and guide our decision. The defendant mounts an attack from both constitutional and statutory quarters, arguing that the trial court erred in denying his motion to dismiss, principally because the cases upon which the court relied, Bartkus v. Illinois, 359 U.S. 121, 79 S. Ct. 676, 3 L. Ed. 2d 684 (1959), and Abbate v. United States, 359 U.S. 187, 79 S. Ct. 666, 3 L. Ed. 2d 729 (1959), and their numerous progeny, establishing an exception to the rule against double jeopardy commonly referred to as the “doctrine of dual sovereignty,” have been so enfeebled and eroded as to lack any binding force. Additionally, it is argued that, consistent with the intention of various legislative enactments and court decisions of other states emphasizing the “individual protection” which the double jeopardy clause was meant to foster, a successive state prosecution following a federal court acquittal is barred. The defendant finally argues that the doctrine of collateral estoppel, as constitutionally embodied in the double jeopardy clause, bars the relitigation by the state of the same operative facts upon which the defendant had previously been acquitted by a federal jury. The state responds that the established law on the issue presented is unequivocal and clear in holding that the same act may constitute a violation of both federal and state
I
In Barthus v. Illinois, 359 U.S. 121, 79 S. Ct. 676, 3 L. Ed. 2d 684 (1959), and Abbate v. United States, 359 U.S. 187, 79 S. Ct. 666, 3 L. Ed. 2d 729 (1959), the United States Supreme Court reaffirmed the well-established principle that a federal prosecution does not bar a subsequent state prosecution of the same person for the same acts, and a state prosecution does not bar a federal one.
The court in Abbate found further support for the “dual sovereignty” concept by noting the “undesirable consequences” that would inhere in imposing a double jeopardy bar upon state-federal or federal-state prosecutions. Prosecution by one sovereign for a minor offense might bar prosecution by the other for a much graver one, and the court clearly took the position that a federal prosecutor has no authority to bargain away a state’s power to enforce its criminal laws. See also United States v. Wheeler, supra, 318.
Finally, Barthus and Abbate, although not weathering the years without criticism,
n
The defendant must acknowledge that his claim of double jeopardy, arising from the pending state prosecution, is, as a matter of federal constitutional law, foreclosed under the rationale of Barthus and Abbate. It is not correct to claim, however, as does the defendant, that these eases no longer represent the United States Supreme Court’s view of the concept of “dual sovereignty,” or that these eases have lost their viability concerning successive prosecutions under the double jeopardy clause. The continued validity and propriety of the “dual sovereignty” concept was recognized and affirmed by the unanimous decision of the Supreme Court in United States v. Wheeler, supra, and has been continuously reaffirmed by the decisions of the United States Courts of Appeals. Wheeler, holding that the double jeopardy clause did not bar the prosecution of an Indian in a federal court when he had
Moreover, almost every federal circuit has rejected claims identical to those raised by the defendant Moeller, thereby permitting successive state-federal or federal-state prosecutions. See United States v. Martin, 574 F.2d 1359 (5th Cir. 1978); United States v. Frumento, 563 F.2d 1083 (3d Cir. 1977); United States v. Cordova, 537 F.2d 1073 (9th Cir. 1976); United States v. James, 532 F.2d 1161 (7th Cir. 1976); United States v. Villano, 529 F.2d 1046 (10th Cir. 1976); United States v. Johnson, 516 F.2d 209 (8th Cir. 1975); Martin v. Rose, 481 F.2d 658 (6th Cir. 1973); United States v. Barone, 467 F.2d 247 (2d Cir. 1972); United States v. Smith, 446 F.2d 200 (4th Cir. 1971); United States v. Regan, 273 F. 727 (1st Cir. 1921).
Notwithstanding this universally accepted principle of federal law, the defendant argues that the principle allowing successive prosecutions has been eroded by three subsequent decisions of the United States Supreme Court, which, it is claimed, suggest that the attitude of the court may have changed
Furthermore, the defendant’s argument that the United States Supreme Court may have “changed its mind” concerning Bartkus and Abbate is, at the least, not aided by the fact that that court has con
m
The defendant finally assigns significant emphasis to the decisions of some state courts,
The dual sovereignty concept of Bartkus and Abbate is based upon the practical necessity of permitting the state and federal governments to enforce laws which they enact in their respective fields of operation. Those decisions, giving sensible recognition to the practicalities of our constitutional form of government, reject the premise that successive prosecutions are merely a judicial nuance, and com
There is no error.
In this opinion Cotter, C. J., Loiselle and Bogdanski, Js., concurred.
See United States v. Bubar, 567 F.2d 192, 196 (2d Cir. 1977).
“[N]or shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb ....’' U.S. Const., amend. V.
Although the problems arising from concurrent federal and state criminal jurisdiction had been noted earlier; see Houston v. Moore, 18 U.S. (5 Wheat.) 1, 5 L. Ed. 19 (1820); the court did not clearly address the issue until Fox v. Ohio, 46 U.S. (5 How.) 410, 12 L. Ed. 213 (1847); United States v. Marigold, 50 U.S. (9 How.) 560, 13 L. Ed. 257 (1850); and Moore v. Illinois, 55 U.S. (14 How.) 13, 14 L. Ed. 306 (1852), in the mid-nineteenth century. Those cases upheld the power of states and the federal government to make the same act criminal; in each case the possibility of consecutive state and federal prosecutions was raised as an objection to concurrent jurisdiction, and was rejected by the court on the ground that such multiple prosecutions, if they occurred, would not constitute double jeopardy. The first ease in which actual multiple prosecutions were upheld was United States v. Lanza, 260 U.S. 377, 43 S. Ct. 141, 67 L. Ed. 314 (1922), involving a prosecution for violation of the Volstead Act, c. 85, 41 Stat. 305, after a conviction for criminal violation of liquor laws of the state of Washington.
See, e.g., Brant, “Overruling Barthus and Abbate: A New Standard for Double Jeopardy,” 11 Washburn L.J. 188 (1972); Recent Developments, 18 Vill. L. Rev. 491 (1973); Recent Decisions, 12 Duq. L. Rev. 365 (1973); Comment, “Successive Prosecutions by Two Sovereigns After Benton v. Maryland,” 66 Nw. U.L. Rev. 248 (1971); Recent Cases, 39 Cinn. L. Rev. 799 (1970).
The substantial majority of state courts also adhere to this view. See, e.g., People v. Hines, 572 P.2d 467 (Colo. 1977); State v. Rogers, 90 N.M. 604, 566 P.2d 1142 (1977); State v. Forbes, 348 So. 2d 983 (La. 1977); Crane v. State, 555 P.2d 845 (Nev. 1976); Stathes v. State, 29 Md. App. 474, 349 A.2d 254 (1975) ; State v. Turley, 518 S.W.2d 207 (Mo. App. 1974); Klein v. Murtagh, 44 App. Div. 2d 465, 355 N.Y.S.2d 622 (1974); People v. Belcher, 11 Cal. 3d 91, 520 P.2d 385 (1974) ; State v. Cooper, 54 N.J. 330, 255 A.2d 232 (1969); State v. Castonguay, 240 A.2d 747 (Me. 1968).
The defendant argues that the state, pursuant to Ashe v. Swenson, 397 U.S. 436, 90 S. Ct. 1189, 25 L. Ed. 2d 469 (1970), is collaterally estopped from “relitigating” the facts upon which he was acquitted in federal court. We disagree. Collateral estoppel “means simply that when an issue of ultimate fact has once been determined by a valid and final judgment, that issue cannot again be litigated between the same parties in any future law suit.” (Emphasis added.) Ashe v. Swenson, supra, 443; see Slattery v. Maykut, 176 Conn. 147, 156-57, 405 A.2d 76 (1978). The application of collateral estoppel thus requires an identity of parties in the prior and subsequent litigation. In this ease, the federal government is neither the same as nor in privity with the state of Connecticut. In such circumstances, the state is not collaterally estopped from maintaining a prosecution against the defendant. Turley v. Wyrick, 554 F.2d 840, 842 (8th Cir. 1977);
See also Millhouse v. United States, 563 F.2d 1083 (3d Cir. 1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1072, 98 S. Ct. 1256, 55 L. Ed. 2d 775 (1978); Sills v. United States, 563 F.2d 1083 (3d Cir. 1977), cert. denied, 434 U.S. 1072, 98 S. Ct. 1258, 55 L. Ed. 2d 776 (1978); United States v. Kerrigan, 514 F.2d 35 (9th. Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 423 U.S. 924, 96 S. Ct. 266, 46 L. Ed. 2d 249 (1975); United States v. Worth, 505 F.2d 1206 (10th Cir. 1974), cert. denied, 420 U.S. 964, 95 S. Ct. 1358, 43 L. Ed. 2d 443 (1975); United States v. Burke, 495 F.2d 1226 (5th Cir. 1974), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 1079, 95 S. Ct. 667, 42 L. Ed. 2d 673 (1974); Martin v. Rose, 481 F.2d 658 (6th Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 876, 94 S. Ct. 86, 38 L. Ed. 2d 121 (1973).
State v. Hogg, 118 N.H. 262, 385 A.2d 844 (1978); People v. Cooper, 398 Mich. 450, 247 N.W.2d 866 (1976); Commonwealth v. Mills, 447 Pa. 163, 286 A.2d 638 (1971); cf. Commonwealth v. Cepulonis, Mass. 373 N.E.2d 1136 (1978).
Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Minnesota, Montana, New York, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Utah, Virginia, and Washington have such legislation. See eitations collected at American Law Institute, Double Jeopardy, 126-27 (1935), and Model Penal Code § 1.11, pp. 60-61, comment (Tent. Draft No. 5, 1956).
Dissenting Opinion
(dissenting). While I agree with my colleagues that Bartkus v. Illinois, 359 U.S. 121, 79 S. Ct. 676, 3 L. Ed. 2d 684 (1959), and Abbate v. United States, 359 U.S. 187, 79 S. Ct. 666, 3 L. Ed. 2d 729 (1959), establish a rule of dual sovereignty that has continued to have vitality, I disagree about the implications of dual sovereignty for this court.
Dual sovereignty is one example of the recognition of the principle of federalism. Bartkus and Abbate hold no more than that the fourteenth and the fifth amendments to the United States constitution do not forbid one sovereign the right to reprosecute a criminal defendant because of his prior involvement with the other sovereign. Nothing in those cases compels, or even legitimates, automatic reprosecution as a matter of state law. That the rule of dual sovereignty is permissive rather than mandatory is clear from Bartkus, the case more directly relevant because it too involved state reprosecution after federal acquittal. Bartkus stated (pp. 138-39): “[Tjhese problems are ones with which the States are obviously more competent to deal than is this Court. Furthermore, the rules resulting will intimately affect the efforts of a State to develop a rational and just body of criminal law
It is furthermore clear that the formal absence of a provision in our constitution expressly forbidding double jeopardy is not a barrier to consideration of the claim raised by the defendant. The prohibition against double jeopardy is, as my colleagues acknowledge, implicit in the common law, and our cases have so held. State v. Langley, 156 Conn. 598, 600-601, 244 A.2d 366 (1968), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 1069, 89 S. Ct. 726, 21 L. Ed. 2d 712 (1969); Kohlfuss v. Warden, 149 Conn. 692, 695, 183 A.2d 626, cert. denied, 371 U.S. 928, 83 S. Ct. 298, 9 L. Ed. 2d 235 (1962). This case comes to us as a matter of first impression as to which there are no binding precedents until today.
The facts of the case before us present a compelling argument for invocation of the prohibition against double jeopardy. The defendant is charged in this state with the same conspiracy for which he was indicted and acquitted in federal court. The incident that gave rise to both prosecutions was, from the outset, investigated jointly by federal and state authorities. There is no discernible prosecutorial interest that was not fully vindicated in the original federal trial. The state has made no affirmative showing why this defendant should twice be forced to run the gauntlet of criminal prosecution.
I believe this court should adopt the view of the Model Penal Code § 1.10 (Proposed Official Draft, 1962) barring reprosecution after acquittal in another jurisdiction unless “the offense of which the defendant was formerly . . . acquitted and the offense for which he is subsequently prosecuted each
My colleagues fear that a limitation on state authority to reprosecute could result in an unseemly race between the federal and the state authorities to obtain early jurisdiction. It seems to me at least as likely that the state and federal authorities will, as in the case before us, cooperate to assure two functionally identical opportunities to try a defendant more than once for one and the same offense. Unless there is a substantial independent state interest to be vindicated, scarce state prosecutorial resources might better be allocated to trying new crimes rather than to retrying old ones.
I would, therefore, find error on the part of the trial court.
The Final Report of the National Commission on Beform of Federal Criminal Laws (“The Brown Commission”) in 1971 recommended the enactment of federal legislation to modify Barfkus and Abbate. See Report on Proposed Federal Criminal Code, 34 Business Lawyer 725, 730 and 753 (January, 1979). The American Bar Association's Study Committee urges amendment of S. 1437, the proposed Criminal Code Reform Act of 1978, to incorporate the proposals of the Brown Commission. Id., 754.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- State of Connecticut v. Charles Moeller
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- 35 cases
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- Published