Hampton v. State

Pearl Hampton, the appellant, was indicted for the first degree assault of Compton Owens. A jury convicted him of assault in the second degree. He received a ten-year split sentence, with one year to serve and the remaining nine years suspended for a period of five years' probation. Hampton argues that this conviction was barred under the principles of former jeopardy by a prior conviction involving a different victim because both victims were injured by the same shotgun blast.

On the evening of April 17, 1982, Huntsville Police Officers Billy Hancock and Compton Owens had just finished…