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Oklahoma law is instructive. Sullinger v. State, 1984 OK CR 44, ¶ 3, 675 P.2d 472, 473. The merger doctrine is a historical feature of case law, and is not based on any statutory or constitutional text. Quillen v. State, 2007 OK CR 22, 163 P.3d 587, ¶ 4, at 589. Courts 'have generally declined to hold that the merger doctrine implicates any principle of constitutional law.' State v. Godsey, 60 S.W.3d 759, 774 (Tenn. 2001). The merger doctrine is entirely separate from the principle of merger of offenses under the constitutional prohibition against multiple punishments for the 'same offense' under the Double Jeopardy Clause. Brown v. Ohio, 432 U.S. 161, 165, 97 S.Ct. 2221, 2225, 53 L.Ed.2d 187 (1977); Perry v. State, 1993 OK CR 5, ¶ 7, 853 P.2d 198, 200-01 (convictions for both felony murder and underlying felony violate prohibition against double jeopardy). The Court in Quillen recently reaffirmed its adherence to the merger doctrine as it 'has been applied in Oklahoma for many years,' first being mentioned in Jewell v. Territory, 4 Okla. 53, 43 P. 1075 (Okla. 1896), and 'a part of Oklahoma's jurisprudence ever since.' Quillen, ...
