State v. Curtis Donald Cline

Summary

The Montana Supreme Court affirmed the denial of Curtis Cline’s motion to dismiss a state theft-by-common-scheme charge on statutory double-jeopardy grounds. The court held that Montana’s statutory protection requires the offense prosecuted in the first jurisdiction and the subsequent Montana offense to be equivalent, and that Cline’s federal conviction for firearm-related offenses did not bar prosecution for theft of non-firearm merchandise. Justice Cotter, joined by Justice McKinnon, dissented, concluding that the statute bars a subsequent prosecution for any offense arising from the same transaction.

Holdings

1. Under § 46-11-504(1), MCA, a subsequent Montana prosecution is barred only when the defendant's conduct constitutes an equivalent offense in both the first and subsequent jurisdictions, in addition to the requirements that the first prosecution resulted in an acquittal or conviction and that the subsequent prosecution arose from the same transaction.
2. The federal prosecution did not bar Montana's prosecution for theft of the non-firearm merchandise because federal law did not provide an equivalent offense for that conduct, and Cline had not previously been placed in jeopardy for the non-firearm theft.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Montana's prosecution of Cline for theft by common scheme involving non-firearm merchandise was barred by Montana's statutory protection against successive prosecutions for offenses arising from the same transaction after his federal conviction for firearm-related offenses.

Disposition

affirmed