Kentucky v. Hamilton

• Decision Date: 05 July 1984
• Docket Number: No. 83-1212,83-1212
• Citation: 468 U.S. 1217,104 S.Ct. 3587,82 L.Ed.2d 885
• Parties: KENTUCKY v. Vondle Lee HAMILTON
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

468 U.S. 1217

104 S.Ct. 3587

82 L.Ed.2d 885

KENTUCKY

v Vondle Lee HAMILTON.

No. 83-1212.

Supreme Court of the United States

July 5, 1984.

The petition for writ of certiorari is denied.

Justice REHNQUIST, with whom Justice O'CONNOR joins, dissenting.

Respondent Hamilton was tried for the crimes of rape and incest, in which he was charged with having had sexual intercourse with his 10-year-old daughter. He was found guilty on both counts and was sentenced to life imprisonment on the rape charge and 10 years on the incest charge, the sentences to be served concurrently. The Supreme Court of Kentucky affirmed his conviction for rape and his sentence of life imprisonment, but reversed his conviction for incest. 659 S.W.2d 201 (1983). That court was of the view that sentencing respondent for two different crimes based on the single act of intercourse with his daughter violated the constitutional guarantee against double jeopardy.

The Supreme Court of Kentucky believed that the closest analogy to the present case was our decision in Harris v. Oklahoma, 433 U.S. 682, 97 S.Ct. 2912, 53 L.Ed.2d 1054 (1977), in which we held that petitioner Harris, who had earlier been tried and convicted of the felony murder of a grocery clerk, could not be later tried for the armed robbery of the store which was the predicate offense for the felony-murder prosecution. In the present case, however, it is undisputed that the State defines rape as sexual intercourse with one who is less than 12 years old, Ky.Rev.Stat. § 510.040(1)(b)(2) (1975), and defines incest as sexual intercourse with a member of one's family, Ky.Rev.Stat. § 530.020 (1975). Thus while both offenses require the element of sexual intercourse, each requires an additional element which the other does not. Although the Kentucky Supreme Court purported to rely on our decision in Blockburger v. United States, 284 U.S. 299, 52 S.Ct. 180, 76 L.Ed. 306 (1932), its ruling is directly contrary to this language from 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. . . ." Id., at 304, 52 S.Ct., at 182.

Earlier this Term, we reiterated the traditional definition of the protection of the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment:

" ' "It protects against a second prosecution for the same offense after acquittal. It protects against a second prosecution for the same offense after conviction. And it protects against multiple punishments for the same offense." ' Brown v. Ohio, 432 U.S. 161, 165 [97 S.Ct. 2221, 2225, 53 L.Ed.2d 187] (1977), quoting North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 717 [89 S.Ct. 2072, 2076, 23 L.Ed.2d 656] (1969)." Ohio v. Johnson, ...