Oregon Supreme Court, May 7, 2020

by: Rankin Johnson • May 11, 2020 • no comments

Summarized by Rankin Johnson, OCDLA

CHARGING DOCUMENTS - Joinder

An indictment can be amended, to specify basis for joinder, by motion rather than by resubmission to the grand jury. Affirmed.

The defendant was charged with multiple counts of robbery and related offenses based on two incidents on the same day against the same victim. The court considered both the statutory scheme and the constitutional requirements. It concluded that the amendment included no new historical facts and was of form rather than substance.

Duncan, dissenting, argued that the amendment was one of substance, because the allegations of the amended indictment were required to be proved. The dissent would have held that allegations regarding the statutory bases for joinder were additional allegations of historical fact and required resubmission to the grand jury.

State v. Haji 366 Or 384 (May 7, 2020) (Nakamoto, Duncan dissenting) (Multnomah County, Ryan and James)