State v. Lomax

• Decision Date: 29 April 1986
• Docket Number: No. 46893,46893
• Parties: STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Leslie LOMAX, Appellant.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

Page 698

712 S.W.2d 698

STATE of Missouri, Respondent, v. Leslie LOMAX, Appellant.

No. 46893.

Missouri Court of Appeals,

Eastern District,

Division Four.

April 29, 1986.

Motion for Rehearing and/or Transfer Denied June 4, 1986.

Application to Transfer Denied

July 15, 1986.

Fabbri & Zotos, Nick A. Zotos, St. Louis, for appellant.

William L. Webster, Atty. Gen., John Morris, Paul Larose, Asst. Attys. Gen., Jefferson City, for respondent.

CRANDALL, Presiding Judge.

Defendant, Leslie Lomax, appeals from his conviction, after a jury trial, for capital murder. He was sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of probation or parole for fifty years. We affirm.

Defendant does not challenge the sufficiency of the evidence. From the evidence, the jury reasonably could have found that defendant, acting with others, murdered Gregory Erson, an undercover police officer who was working a prostitution detail in a high crime area in St. Louis known as the "Stroll."

Defendant first contends that the trial court erred in overruling his motion to dismiss the present charge against him based on double jeopardy. At defendant's first trial the prosecutor entered a memorandum of nolle prosequi after four days of voir dire but before the jury was sworn. Shortly thereafter, defendant was re-indicted and re-tried, resulting in this conviction. Defendant also argues that the jeopardy problem was exacerbated by the fact that the prosecutor tried to goad defense counsel into requesting a mistrial by asking improper questions during the voir dire in the first trial.

After an order of nolle prosequi is filed, prosecution ceases. The charge may be brought again as long as the accused is not placed in double jeopardy. State v. Lawson, 630 S.W.2d 185, 189 (Mo.App.1982). Jeopardy attaches in a jury trial when the jury has been impaneled and sworn. State v. Harrold, 626 S.W.2d 260, 261 (Mo.App.1981). Defendant acknowledges this fact and cites no authority to the contrary. In the first proceeding, the prosecutor filed a nolle prosequi before the jury was sworn, with the result that double jeopardy did not attach so as to bar this subsequent proceeding.

Defendant's argument regarding prosecutorial overreaching during the first trial is academic. Defendant never requested a mistrial and the proceeding was aborted by the nolle prosequi. Defendant's first point is denied.

Defendant next contends that the trial court erred in denying his request that the jury panel be quashed after the prosecutor told the veniremen that the charges against a co-defendant, David Bryant, had been dismissed. The trial court sustained an objection to the prosecutor's comments and instructed the jury to disregard them.

A mistrial is a drastic remedy, the granting of which is vested in the sound discretion of the trial court, which is in the best position to determine what, if any impact the statement had on the jury panel. State v. Williams, 664 S.W.2d 226, 228 (Mo.App.1983). Such a remedy should be granted only when the incident is so grievous that prejudice cannot be removed in any other way. State v. Baker, 630 S.W.2d 111, 114 (Mo.App.1981). Not every instance in which the prosecutor exceeds the limits of proper comments during voir dire mandates a mistrial. To warrant a mistrial, prosecutorial remarks must be not only improper but also prejudicial to defendant under the facts and circumstances of the particular case.

In this case, the trial court sustained the objection and took corrective action to purge the prejudicial effect, if any, upon the jury. We have carefully reviewed the record and find no abuse of the trial court's discretion. In so ruling, we do not reach the question of whether the prosecutor's comments were proper retaliation to statements which defense counsel had made earlier to the jury panel. Defendant's second point is denied.

The judgment of the trial court is affirmed.

SATZ, J., concurs.

PUDLOWSKI, concurs in separate opinion.

PUDLOWSKI, Judge, concurring.

I concur in affirming the conviction in the present case. I write a concurring opinion to address my concern about the prosecutor's unbridled discretion to enter a memorandum of nolle prosequi before the attachment of double jeopardy at the time the jury is impaneled and sworn.

A nolle prosequi is an entry of record that the prosecutor will proceed no further and constitutes the termination of a particular prosecution. 22A C.J.S. Criminal Law, Section 456 at 1 (1961). At common law, the Attorney General of England could enter a nolle prosequi without explanation or the consent of the court. Regina v. Allen, 1 Best & S. 850 (Q.B.1862). This absolute power was derived not from substantive law but from the very ancient practices and prerogatives of the Attorney General who served as the sovereign's personal representative in all prosecutions. People ex rel. Elliott v. Covelli, 415 Ill. 79, 112 N.E.2d 156, 160 (1953). The court's function to enter the nolle prosequi on the rolls was purely ministerial.

This was so because the sovereign, personified in the King, was theoretically the only party interested in the prosecution. The prosecutor and his supervisor, the Attorney General, were agents of the King, answerable only to him. If the agent of the sovereign desired that a prosecution should cease, that was the end of the matter. The public subjects had no interest and could not be heard to complain.

State ex rel. Skinner v. Dostert, 278 S.E.2d 624, 629 (W.Va.1981). ¹

Although the American constitutional system changed the operative theory of sovereignty and vested the powers and prerogatives of the King of England at common law in the people, the prosecutors in this country continued to exercise the same absolute power to enter a nolle prosequi. In 1869, the United States Supreme Court stated:

Public prosecutions, until they come before the court to which they are returnable, are within the exclusive discretion of the District Attorney, and even after they are entered in court, they are so far under his control that he may enter a nolle prosequi at any time before the jury is impaneled for the trial of the case...

The Confiscation Cases, 74 U.S. (7 Wall.) 454, 457, 19 L.Ed. 196, 197 (1869). This same view prevails in Missouri where our courts consistently hold that the judge has no participation in a nolle prosequi and such right lies within the sound discretion of the prosecuting attorney. State ex rel. Griffin v. Smith, 363 Mo. 1235, 258 S.W.2d 590 (banc 1953); State ex rel. Dowd v. Nangle, 365 Mo. 134, 276 S.W.2d 135 (banc 1955).

Today, in most jurisdictions, however, the decision to dismiss a pending prosecution can no longer be made by the prosecutor alone. In 1944, Rule 48(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure changed the existing common law by requiring the Attorney General or the United States attorney to obtain leave of court to terminate a prosecution by dismissal of an indictment, information, or complaint. Federal courts examining the history of Rule 48(a) have concluded that the primary purpose of the "leave of court" requirement is to protect a defendant against prosecutorial harassment, e.g., charging, dismissing, and recharging another prosecution at a different time or place deemed more favorable to the Government. Rinaldi v. United States, 434 U.S. 22, 29 n. 15, 98 S.Ct. 81, 85 n. 15, 54 L.Ed.2d 207 (1977); United States v. Salinas, 693 F.2d 348, 351 (5th Cir.1982). Rule 48(a) was also construed to preserve the judiciary's essential function of protecting the public interest in the evenhanded administration of criminal justice. United States v. Cowan, 524 F.2d 504, 512 (5th Cir.1975). By including the "leave of court" requirement, Rule 48(a) served to modify and condition the Executive's prerogative to terminate a prosecution by erecting a judicial check on the abuse of that power. Id. at 513.

Most jurisdictions in the United States, by rule or statute, have similarly checked the unfettered power of the prosecutor at common law to enter a nolle prosequi. Indeed, prior to the adoption of Rule 48(a), more than thirty states had modified the common law to give the courts a responsible role in the dismissal of a criminal prosecution. Cowan, 524 F.2d at 509-510. These limitations on the prosecutor's dismissal power vary:

The prosecutor may file a dismissal ... only with the "consent of the court," "leave of court," or "permission of the court;" a prosecution may be dismissed by the court on motion of the prosecutor; a prosecution may be dismissed by the court on its own motion; or a prosecution may be dismissed by the court either on its own motion or upon the application of the prosecutor.

1 Wharton's Criminal Law, Section 60 at 313-314 (14th ed. 1978) (footnotes omitted). ²

Other states have treated the limitation on the prosecutor's discretion to dismiss as a development arising from the application of the common law to the American experience. In Illinois, the supreme court held that the consent and the approval of the court is required before the state's attorney may enter a nolle prosequi to any charge. People ex rel. Hoyne v. Newcomer, 284 Ill. 315, 120 N.E. 244, 248 (1918); People v. Mooar, 92 Ill.App.3d 852, 48 Ill.Dec. 186, 188, 416 N.E.2d 81, 83 (1981). Likewise, in West Virginia, the decision to grant or deny a motion to nolle prosequi is also a judicial function because the prerogatives of the Attorney General of England at common law are no longer germane to the American constitutional system. Dostert, 278 S.E.2d at 629. Cf. Covelli, 112 N.E.2d at 159-161 (the Attorney General of Illinois, who has all the powers coincidental to the Attorney General of England at common law, has the sole discretion to enter a nolle prosequi, subject to the limitation against capricious and vexatious repetitions).

Having presented a brief overview of the law concerning the prosecutor's discretion to enter a nolle prosequi, I address its...