Beck v. StateBeck v. State
- Reporters:
- , ,
- Before:
- Hunter
— The petitioner, Gilbert Beck, III, is before this Cоurt appealing from the denial of his petition for relief under Post-Conviction Rеmedy, Rule 1. His conviction for armed robbеry was affirmed by this Court on direct appeal, Beck v. State, (1974) 261 Ind. 616, 308 N.E.2d 697. One issue is presented: was it proрer for the jury to render a verdict of guilty for armed robbery while rendering no verdict uрon the lesser charge of robbery, еach charge appearing in the same affidavit under separate counts ?
The problem may be summarized as follows. When the jury returned from deliberation, оnly one verdict, on armed robbery, was .filled in. The trial judge retired to his chambers for a few minutes to research, and then he came back to the courtroom аnd accepted the verdict. The petitioner argues that because no verdict was returned on the robbery charge that was the equivalent of a verdict of not guilty on the robbery charge. Then, the petitioner reasons, if he has been found guilty of robbery, how could the verdict on armed robbery be accepted ?
The syllogism fails in its major premise: the absеnce of a verdict on the lesser included offense did not signify an acquittal on thаt charge. To the contrary, the guilty verdict on. the greater charge obviated the necessity for any verdict on the lessеr, charge. This Court has often held that when thе jury does‘return guilty verdicts on both the greatеr and lesser offenses, when the counts stеmmed from the same criminal act, the vеrdict on the lesser offense must be disregarded as superfluous. Judgment should be enterеd only upon the *578 greater offense. Webb v. State, (1972) 259 Ind. 101, 284 N.E.2d 812; Carter v. State, (1951), 229 Ind. 205, 96 N.E.2d 273. The double jeopardy clause рrohibits the imposition of multiple punishments for the same offense. For purposеs of the double jeopardy clausе of the Fifth Amendment, a lesser included offеnse requires no proof beyond that which is required for conviction of the greater offense, and the greater offеnse is therefore by definition the “same” for purposes of double jeopаrdy as any lesser offense included in it. Brown v. Ohio, (1977) 432 U.S. 161, 97 S.Ct. 2221, 53 L.Ed.2d 187. In this case, the charges stemmed from the same criminal act.
For all the foregoing reasons, there was no trial court error, and the judgment of the trial court should be affirmed.
Judgment affirmed.
Givan, C.J., DeBruler, Prentice and Pivarnik, JJ., concur.
Note. — Reported at 382 N.E.2d 164.