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
Authors
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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