West Virginia Supreme Court· 2/14/1996

State v. Sears

Citations

468 S.E.2d 324
196 W. Va. 71
1996 W. Va. LEXIS 11

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

stating that “when the Legislature fails to indicate the allowable unit of prosecution and sentence with clarity, doubt as to legislative intent should be resolved in favor of lenity for the accused”
“Absent evidence to the contrary, it is presumed the Legislature did not intend to punish the same offense under two statutes.” (citation omitted)
Blockburger test inapplicable where there is a “clear and definite statement of intent by Legislature that cumulative punishment is permissible”
“[T]he presumption is that double jeopardy principles have been violated unless there is a clear and definite statement of intent by the Legislature that cumulative punishment is permissible.”
\[T]he presumption is that double jeopardy principles have been violated unless there is a clear and definite statement of intent by the Legislature that cumulative punishment is permissible.\
“Where a statute is ambiguous as to the allowable unit of prosecution, the court must adopt a construction that favors the defendant.” (internal quotations and citation omitted

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Judges: Cleckley

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Cited by

49 cases in this archive cite this case; the 20 most cited are listed.

Cites

46 cases in this archive are cited by this case; the 20 most cited are listed.

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