State v. Johnson (1996)

In State v. Johnson, 197 W. Va. 575, 476 S.E.2d 522 (1996), the Court explained that double jeopardy was not violated where a defendant had pled guilty in magistrate court to the offense of driving left of center and was subsequently prosecuted in circuit court for DUI, an offense arising from the same incident. The Court found that the defendant was not being subjected to multiple prosecutions for the same offense where "driving left of center and DUI require proof of different facts." Id. at 586, 476 S.E.2d at 533. The Court also observed that the prosecutor "would not have had knowledge of or the opportunity to attend the magistrate court proceeding involving the driving left of center violation." Id. at 587, 476 S.E.2d at 534. Thus, "the State was not precluded by the procedural joinder rule from subsequently prosecuting the defendant for first offense DUI." Id.