State v. CooperState v. Cooper
The issue is whether the trial court was correct in quashing an indictment on the ground that Act 74 of 1979 is unconstitutional because it contains more than one object.
“Section 15. (A) Introduction; Title; Single Object; Public Meetings. The legislature shall enact no law except by a bill introduced during that session, and propose no constitutional amendment except by a joint resolution introduced during that session, which shall be processed as a bill. Every bill, except the general appropriation bill and bills for the enactment, rearrangement, codification, or revision of a system of laws, shall be confined to one object. Every bill shall contain a brief title indicative of its object. Action on any matter intended to have the effect of law shall be taken only in open, public meeting.”
Defendant successfully contended that Act 74 of 1979 is unconstitutional because it provides for two different purposes or objects, and the trial court sustained defendant‘s motion to quash. The State has appealed.
Defendant argues that because the Act contains amendments to both substantive and procedural law and because the aggravating circumstances listed in the Act are to be considered by the jury in sentencing in all capital cases (not only in first degree murder cases) the Act contains more than one object and is invalid under
In State v. Dooley, 261 La. 295, 259 So.2d 329 (1972), the purpose of the single object requirement of the
The Constitution does not prohibit the legislature from dealing with several branches of one subject or from providing in one act the necessary means for carrying out its object. State v. Craig, 158 La. 866, 104 So. 744 (1925). As the Court stated in Wall v. Close, 203 La. 345, 14 So.2d 19 (1943):
“`If all the parts of a Statute have a natural connection and reasonably relate, directly or indirectly, to one general and legitimate subject of legislation, the statute is not considered as being open to the objection of plurality, no matter how extensively it deals with the details looking to the accomplishment of the main legislative purpose.‘” 14 So.2d 25.
Here, the definitions of first and second degree murder and the list of aggravating circumstances to be applied in capital cases are not unrelated and incongruous matters. First degree murder is a capital crime. In an attempt to enact a constitutionally acceptable statutory scheme for imposition of the death penalty, the Louisiana legislature modeled our murder statute after those approved in Gregg v. Georgia, 428 U.S. 153, 96 S.Ct. 2909, 49 L.Ed.2d 859 (1976). Accordingly, under Louisiana law today, the trial in a first degree murder case is composed of two phases, the determination of guilt or innocence and the sentencing hearing. If defendant is found guilty of first degree murder during the initial stage of the proceeding, the jury must then consider evidence relative to aggravating and mitigating circumstances before sentencing. Since the legislature‘s adoption of this bifurcated procedure in 1976, the circumstances contained in
It is true that the aggravating and mitigating circumstances contained in
Therefore, the trial judge erred in ruling that Act 74 of 1979 was unconstitutional and in ruling that defendant would have to be prosecuted under the pre-amendment murder statute. Accordingly, the judgment of the trial court quashing the indictment is reversed and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with the opinions expressed herein.
REVERSED AND REMANDED.