Criminal Law: Multi-Count Indictment-Dismissal of Count-Multiple Punishments

Where the state challenged a trial court’s dismissal of one of two counts in the state’s information in lieu of indictment against a criminal defendant, the defendant’s motion to dismiss the state’s interlocutory appeal for lack of jurisdiction is denied, and the judgment is reversed and remanded because the double-jeopardy clause protection against multiple punishments had not ripened because it does not apply until sentencing, and the court erred by dismissing a drug-possession charge before trial on the grounds that the double-jeopardy clause was “presumably violated.”

Judgment is reversed and remanded.

State v. Thompson (MLW No. 73124/Case No. WD81784 – 7 pages) (Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, Pfeiffer, J.) Appealed from circuit court, Jackson County, Campbell, J. (Jean Peters Baker, Sean T. Foley and P. Benjamin Cox, Kansas City, Missouri, for appellant) (Eric P. Fenstermacher, Kansas City, Missouri, for respondent).