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SUPREME COURT OF LOUISIANA

No. 95-K-0061
STATE OF LOUISIANA Versus SYDNEY SMITH ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE COURT OF APPEAL, FOURTH CIRCUIT, PARISH OF ORLEANS, STATE OF LOUISIANA

JOHNSON, Justice*

We granted certiorari in this case to determine whether the defendant's right against double jeopardy was violated. After the trial concluded, a jury convicted defendant of both manslaughter and second degree feticide. He was sentenced to concurrent terms of 30 years at hard labor and 10 years at hard labor respectively. Defendant appealed his convictions to the fourth circuit. The appellate court

pretermitted relator's constitutional challenge to the facial validity of Louisiana's feticide statute along with his argument that the trial court's sentences were excessive. However, they concluded that because "the same evidence" used to convict defendant of manslaughter was also used to convict him of second degree feticide, his rights against double jeopardy were violated. The conviction and sentence for second degree feticide were vacated but the conviction for manslaughter was affirmed. The sentence for the manslaughter conviction was also vacated with the case being remanded for

Because of the vacancy created by the resignation of Dennis, J., now a judge with the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, there was no justice designated "not on panel" under Rule IV, Part II,

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Louisiana Law