Texas Allows Successive Prosecutions of a Defendant for the Same Statutory Violation Occurring in the Same Criminal Transaction: Ex parte Rathmell, 717 S.W.2d 33 (Tex. Crim. App. 1986)

Date

1987

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Texas Tech Law Review

Abstract

Ex parte Rathmel allows a defendant to be prosecuted successively for multiple violations of the same statute during the same transaction. Its decision is consistent with the policy rationale of McWilliams and, more importantly, with the language of the statute. What is unexpected is the court's repudiation of the Blockburger test that it had approved and adopted in McWilliams. By not permitting lower courts to apply this standard and mandating statutory interpretation, the court of criminal appeals has effectively destroyed the uniformity that McWilliams had produced and perhaps returned to the infamous same evidence test.

Description

Keywords

Ex parte Rathmel, Double jeopardy, Fifth amendment, Carving doctrine, Blockburger v. United States

Citation

18 Tex. Tech L. Rev. 1291