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ing that defendant
by his timing brought about foreclosure of opportunity to stay before the same trial).
their constitutional rights. 84 Refusing to permit retrial, the Court
observed that the ‘‘doctrine of manifest necessity stands as a command
to trial judges not to foreclose the defendant’s option [to go
to the first jury and perhaps obtain an acquittal] until a scrupulous
exercise of judicial discretion leads to the conclusion that the ends
of public justice would not be served by a continuation of the proceedings.’’
85 The later cases appear to accept Jorn as an example
of a case where the trial judge ‘‘acts irrationally or irresponsibly.’’
But if the trial judge acts deliberately, giving prosecution and defense
the opportunity to explain their positions, and according respect
to defendant’s interest in concluding the matter before the
one jury, then he is entitled to deference. This approach perhaps
rehabilitates the result if not the reasoning in Gori and maintains
the result and much of the reasoning of Jorn. 86
Of course, ‘‘a motion by the defendant for mistrial is ordinarily
assumed to remove any barrier to reprosecution, even if the defendant’s
motion is necessitated by a prosecutorial or judicial error.’’ 87
‘‘Such a motion by the defendant is deemed to be a deliberate election
on his part to forgo his valued right to have his guilt or innocence
determined before the first trier of fact.’’ 88 In United States
v. Dinitz, 89 the trial judge had excluded defendant’s principal attorney
for misbehavior and had then given defendant the option of recess
while he appealed the exclusion, a mistrial, or continuation
with an assistant defense counsel. Holding that the defendant
could be retried after he chose a mistrial, the Court reasoned that,
while the exclusion might have been in error, it was not done in
bad faith to goad the defendant into requesting a mistrial or to
prejudice his prospects for acquittal. The defendant’s choice, even
though difficult, to terminate the trial and go on to a new trial
should be respected and a new trial not barred. To hold otherwise
would necessitate requiring the defendant to shoulder the burden
and anxiety of proceeding to a probable conviction followed by an
appeal, which if successful would lead to a new trial, and neither
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AMENDMENT 5—RIGHTS OF PERSONS 1377
90 Compare United States v. Dinitz, 424 U.S. 600, 611 (1976), with United
States v. Tateo, 377 U.S. 463, 468 n.3 (1964).
91 456 U.S. 667, 676 (1982). The Court thought a broader standard requiring an
evaluation of whether acts of the prosecutor or the judge prejudiced the defendant
would be unmanageable and would be counterproductive because courts would be
loath to grant motions for mistrials knowing that reprosecution would be barred. Id.
at 676–77. The defendant had moved for mistrial after the prosecutor had asked a
key witness a prejudicial question. Four Justices concurred, noting that the question
did not constitute overreaching or harassment and objecting both to the Court’s
reaching the broader issue and to its narrowing the exception. Id. at 681.
92 United States v. Martin Linen Supply Co., 430 U.S. 564, 571 (1977).
93 United States v. Scott, 437 U.S. 82, 91 (1978) (quoting Green v. United
States, 355 U.S. 184, 188 (1957)). For the conceptually related problem of trial for
a ‘‘separate’’ offense arising out of the same ‘‘transaction,’’ see discussion under ‘‘The
‘Same Transaction’ Problem,’’ infra.
94 Burks v. United States, 437 U.S. 1, 16 (1978); Fong Foo v. United States, 369
U.S. 141, 143 (1962). For evaluation of those interests of the defendant that might
support the absolute rule of finality, and rejection of all such interests save the right
the public interest nor defendant’s interests would thereby be
served.
But the Court has also reserved the possibility that the defendant’s
motion might be necessitated by prosecutorial or judicial overreaching
motivated by bad faith or undertaken to harass or prejudice,
and in those cases retrial would be barred. It was unclear
what prosecutorial or judicial misconduct would constitute such
overreaching, 90 but in Oregon v. Kennedy, 91 the Court adopted a
narrow ‘‘intent’’ test, so that ‘‘[o]nly where the governmental conduct
in question is intended to ‘goad’ the defendant into moving for
a mistrial may a defendant raise the bar of double jeopardy to a
second trial after having succeeded in aborting the first on his own
motion.’’ Therefore, ordinarily, a defendant who moves for or acquiesces
in a mistrial is bound by his decision and may be required
to stand for retrial.
Reprosecution Following Acquittal
That a defendant may not be retried following an acquittal is
‘‘the most fundamental rule in the history of double jeopardy jurisprudence.’’
92 ‘‘[T]he law attaches particular significance to an acquittal.
To permit a second trial after an acquittal, however mistaken
the acquittal may have been, would present an unacceptably
high risk that the Government, with its vastly superior resources,
might wear down the defendant so that ‘even though innocent he
may be found guilty.’’’ 93 While in other areas of double jeopardy
doctrine consideration is given to the public-safety interest in having
a criminal trial proceed to an error-free conclusion, no such balancing
of interests is permitted with respect to acquittals, ‘‘no matter
how erroneous,’’ no matter even if they were ‘‘egregiously erroneous.’’
94
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1378 AMENDMENT 5—RIGHTS OF PERSONS
of the jury to acquit against the evidence and the trial judge’s ability to temper legislative
rules with leniency, see Westen & Drubel, Toward a General Theory of Double
Jeopardy, 1978 SUP. CT. REV. 81, 122–37.
95 195 U.S. 100 (1904). The case interpreted not the constitutional provision but
a statutory provision extending double jeopardy protection to the Philippines. The
Court has described the case, however, as correctly stating constitutional principles.
See, e.g., United States v. Wilson, 420 U.S. 332, 346 n.15 (1975); United States v.
DiFrancesco, 449 U.S. 117, 113 n.13 (1980).
96 In dissent, Justice Holmes, joined by three other Justices, propounded a theory
of ‘‘continuing jeopardy,’’ so that until the case was finally concluded one way
or another, through judgment of conviction or acquittal, and final appeal, there was
no second jeopardy no matter how many times a defendant was tried. 195 U.S. at
134. The Court has numerous times rejected any concept of ‘‘continuing jeopardy.’’
E.g., Green v. United States, 355 U.S. 184, 192 (1957); United States v. Wilson, 420
U.S. 332, 351–53 (1975); Breed v. Jones, 421 U.S. 519, 533–35 (1975).
97 Palko v. Connecticut, 302 U.S. 319 (1937). Palko is no longer viable. Cf.
Greene v. Massey, 437 U.S. 19 (1978).
98 The Criminal Appeals Act of 1907, 34 Stat. 1246, was ‘‘a failure . . . , a most
unruly child that has not improved with age.’’ United States v. Sisson, 399 U.S. 267,
307 (1970). See also United States v. Oppenheimer, 242 U.S. 85 (1916); Fong Foo
v. United States, 369 U.S. 141 (1962).
99 Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control Act, Pub. L. No. 91–644, 84 Stat.
1890, 18 U.S.C. § 3731. Congress intended to remove all statutory barriers to governmental
appeal and to allow appeals whenever the Constitution would permit, so
that interpretation of the statute requires constitutional interpretation as well.
United States v. Wilson, 420 U.S. 332, 337 (1974). See Sanabria v. United States,
437 U.S. 54, 69 n.23 (1978), and id. at 78 (Justice Stevens concurring).
The acquittal being final, there is no governmental appeal constitutionally
possible from such a judgment. This was firmly established
in Kepner v. United States, 95 which arose under a Philippines
appeals system in which the appellate court could make an
independent review of the record, set aside the trial judge’s decision,
and enter a judgment of conviction. 96 Previously, under the
due process clause, there was no barrier to state provision for prosecutorial
appeals from acquittals. 97 But there are instances in
which the trial judge will dismiss the indictment or information
without intending to acquit or in circumstances in which retrial
would not be barred, and the prosecution, of course, has an interest
in seeking on appeal to have errors corrected. Until 1971, however,
the law providing for federal appeals was extremely difficult to
apply and insulated from review many purportedly erroneous legal
rulings, 98 but in that year Congress enacted a new statute permitting
appeals in all criminal cases in which indictments are dismissed,
except in those cases in which the double jeopardy clause
prohibits further prosecution. 99 In part because of the new law, the
Court has dealt in recent years with a large number of problems
in this area.
Acquittal by Jury.—Little or no controversy accompanies the
rule that once a jury has acquitted a defendant, government may
not, through appeal of the verdict or institution of a new prosecu-
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AMENDMENT 5—RIGHTS OF PERSONS 1379
100 What constitutes a jury acquittal may occasionally be uncertain. In Schiro
v. Farley, 510 U.S. 222 (1994), the Court ruled that a jury’s action in leaving the
verdict sheet blank on all but one count did not amount to an acquittal on those
counts, and that consequently conviction on the remaining count, alleged to be duplicative
of one of the blank counts, could not constitute double jeopardy. In any
event, the Court added, no successive prosecution violative of double jeopardy could
result from an initial sentencing proceeding in the course of an initial prosecution.
101 In United States v. Ball, 163 U.S. 662 (1896), three defendants were placed
on trial, Ball was acquitted and the other two were convicted, the two appealed and
obtained a reversal on the ground that the indictment had been defective, and all
three were again tried and all three were convicted. Ball’s conviction was set aside
as violating the clause; the trial court’s action was not void but only voidable, and
Ball had taken no steps to void it while the Government could not take such action.
Similarly, in Benton v. Maryland, 395 U.S. 784 (1969), the defendant was convicted
of burglary but acquitted of larceny; the conviction was set aside on his appeal because
the jury had been unconstitutionally chosen. He was again tried and convicted
of both burglary and larceny, but the larceny conviction was held to violate the double
jeopardy clause. On the doctrine of ‘‘constructive acquittals’’ by conviction of a
lesser included offense, see discussion infra under ‘‘Reprosecution After Reversal on
Defendant’s Appeal.’’
102 United States v. Martin Linen Supply Co., 430 U.S. 564, 570–72 (1977);
Sanabria v. United States, 437 U.S. 54, 63–65 (1978); Finch v. United States, 433
U.S. 676 (1977).
103 In Fong Foo v. United States, 369 U.S. 141 (1962), the Court acknowledged
that the trial judge’s action in acquitting was ‘‘based upon an egregiously erroneous
foundation,’’ but it was nonetheless final and could not be reviewed. Id. at 143.
104 United States v. Martin Linen Supply Co., 430 U.S. 564, 571 (1977).
105 430 U.S. at 570–76. See also United States v. Scott, 437 U.S. 82, 87–92
(1978); Smalis v. Pennsylvania, 476 U.S. 140 (1986) (demurrer sustained on basis
of insufficiency of evidence is acquittal).
106 437 U.S. 54 (1978).
tion, place the defendant on trial again. 100 Thus, the Court early
held that, when the results of a trial are set aside because the first
indictment was invalid or for some reason the trial’s results were
voidable, a judgment of acquittal must nevertheless remain undisturbed.
101
Acquittal by the Trial Judge.—Similarly, when a trial judge
acquits a defendant, that action concludes the matter. 102 There is
no possibility of retrial for the same offense. 103 But it may be difficult
at times to determine whether the trial judge’s action was in
fact an acquittal or was a dismissal or some other action which the
prosecution may be able to appeal. The question is ‘‘whether the
ruling of the judge, whatever its label, actually represents a resolution,
correct or not, of some or all of the factual elements of the offense
charged.’’ 104 Thus, an appeal by the Government was held
barred in a case in which the deadlocked jury had been discharged,
and the trial judge had granted the defendant’s motion for a judgment
of acquittal under the appropriate federal rule, explicitly
based on the judgment that the Government had not proved facts
constituting the offense. 105 Even if, as happened in Sanabria v.
United States, 106 the trial judge erroneously excludes evidence and
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1380 AMENDMENT 5—RIGHTS OF PERSONS
107 In United States v. Wilson, 420 U.S. 332 (1975), following a jury verdict to
convict, the trial judge granted defendant’s motion to dismiss on the ground of prejudicial
delay, not a judgment of acquittal; the Court permitted a government appeal
because reversal would have resulted in reinstatement of the jury’s verdict, not in
a retrial. In United States v. Jenkins, 420 U.S. 358, 365 (1975), the Court assumed,
on the basis of Wilson, that a trial judge’s acquittal of a defendant following a jury
conviction could be appealed by the government because, again, if the judge’s decision
were set aside there would be no further proceedings at trial. In overruling Jenkins
in United States v. Scott, 437 U.S. 82 (1978), the Court noted the assumption
and itself assumed that a judgment of acquittal bars appeal only when a second
trial would be necessitated by reversal. Id. at 91 n.7.
108 Serfass v. United States, 420 U.S. 377 (1975) (after request for jury trial but
before attachment of jeopardy judge dismissed indictment because of evidentiary insufficiency;
appeal allowed); United States v. Sanford, 429 U.S. 14 (1976) (judge
granted mistrial after jury deadlock, then four months later dismissed indictment
for insufficient evidence; appeal allowed, because granting mistrial had returned
case to pretrial status).
109 See ‘‘Reprosecution After Reversal on Defendant’s Appeal,’’ supra.
110 See ‘‘Acquittal by the Trial Judge,’’ supra.
then acquits on the basis that the remaining evidence is insufficient
to convict, the judgment of acquittal produced thereby is final
and unreviewable.
Some limited exceptions do exist with respect to the finality of
trial judge acquittal. First, because a primary purpose of the due
process clause is the prevention of successive trials and not of prosecution
appeals per se, it is apparently the case that if the trial
judge permits the case to go to the jury, which convicts, and the
judge thereafter enters a judgment of acquittal, even one founded
upon his belief that the evidence does not establish guilt, the prosecution
may appeal, because the effect of a reversal would be not
a new trial but reinstatement of the jury’s verdict and judgment
thereon. 107 Second, if the trial judge enters or grants a motion of
acquittal, even one based on the conclusion that the evidence is insufficient
to convict, the prosecution may appeal if jeopardy had not
yet attached in accordance with the federal standard. 108
Trial Court Rulings Terminating Trial Before Verdict.—
If, after jeopardy attaches, a trial judge grants a motion for mistrial,
ordinarily the defendant is subject to retrial; 109 if, after jeopardy
attaches, but before a jury conviction occurs, the trial judge
acquits, perhaps on the basis that the prosecution has presented
insufficient evidence or that the defendant has proved a requisite
defense such as insanity or entrapment, the defendant is not subject
to retrial. 110 However, it may be that the trial judge will grant
a motion to dismiss that is neither a mistrial nor an acquittal, but
is instead a termination of the trial in defendant’s favor based on
some decision not relating to his factual guilt or innocence, such as
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AMENDMENT 5—RIGHTS OF PERSONS 1381
111 United States v. Wilson, 420 U.S. 332 (1975) (preindictment delay); United
States v. Jenkins, 420 U.S. 358 (1975) (determination of law based on facts adduced
at trial; ambiguous whether judge’s action was acquittal or dismissal); United States
v. Scott, 437 U.S. 82 (1978) (preindictment delay).
112 See United States v. Scott, 437 U.S. 82, 84–86 (1978); United States v.
Sisson, 399 U.S. 267, 291–96 (1970).
113 Cf. Lee v. United States, 432 U.S. 23 (1977).
114 United States v. Wilson, 420 U.S. 332 (1975) (after jury guilty verdict, trial
judge dismissed indictment on grounds of preindictment delay; appeal permissible
because upon reversal all trial judge had to do was enter judgment on the jury’s
verdict).
115 United States v. Jenkins, 420 U.S. 358 (1975) (after presentation of evidence
in bench trial, judge dismissed indictment; appeal impermissible because if dismissal
was reversed there would have to be further proceedings in the trial court
devoted to resolving factual issues going to elements of offense charged and resulting
in supplemental findings).
116 United States v. Scott, 437 U.S. 82 (1978) (at close of evidence, court dismissed
indictment for preindictment delay; ruling did not go to determination of
guilt or innocence, but, like a mistrial, permitted further proceedings that would go
to factual resolution of guilt or innocence). The Court thought that double jeopardy
policies were resolvable by balancing the defendant’s interest in having the trial
concluded in one proceeding against the government’s right to one complete opportunity
to convict those who have violated the law. The defendant chose to move to
prejudicial preindictment delay. 111 The prosecution may not simply
begin a new trial but must seek first to appeal and overturn the
dismissal, a course that was not open to federal prosecutors until
enactment of the Omnibus Crime Control Act in 1971. 112 That law
has resulted in tentative and uncertain rulings with respect to
when such dismissals may be appealed and further proceedings directed.
In the first place, it is unclear in many instances whether
a judge’s ruling is a mistrial, a dismissal, or an acquittal. 113 In the
second place, because the Justices have such differing views about
the policies underlying the double jeopardy clause, determinations
of which dismissals preclude appeals and further proceedings may
result from shifting coalitions and from revised perspectives. Thus,
the Court first fixed the line between permissible and impermissible
appeals at the point at which further proceedings would have
had to take place in the trial court if the dismissal were reversed.
If the only thing that had to be done was to enter a judgment on
a guilty verdict after reversal, appeal was constitutional and permitted
under the statute; 114 if further proceedings, such as continuation
of the trial or some further factfinding, was necessary,
appeal was not permitted. 115 Now, but by a close division of the
Court, the determining factor is not whether further proceedings
must be had but whether the action of the trial judge, whatever its
label, correct or not, resolved some or all of the factual elements
of the offense charged in defendant’s favor, whether, that is, the
court made some determination related to the defendant’s factual
guilt or innocence. 116 Such dismissals relating to guilt or innocence
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1382 AMENDMENT 5—RIGHTS OF PERSONS
terminate the proceedings and, having made a voluntary choice, is bound to the consequences,
including the obligation to continue in further proceedings. Id. at 95–101.
The four dissenters would have followed Jenkins, and accused the Court of having
adopted too restrictive a definition of acquittal. Their view is that the rule against
retrials after acquittal does not, as the Court believed, ‘‘safeguard determination of
innocence; rather, it is that a retrial following a final judgment for the accused necessarily
threatens intolerable interference with the constitutional policy against
multiple trials.’’ Id. at 101, 104 (Justices Brennan, White, Marshall, and Stevens).
They would, therefore, treat dismissals as functional equivalents of acquittals,
whenever further proceedings would be required after reversals.
117 North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 717 (1969).
118 Ex parte Lange, 85 U.S. (18 Wall.) 163 (1873).
119 A prosecutor dissatisfied with the punishment imposed upon the first conviction
might seek another trial in order to obtain a greater sentence. Cf. Ciucci v. Illinois,
356 U.S. 571 (1958) (under due process clause, double jeopardy clause not then
applying to States).
120 United States v. Ball, 163 U.S. 662 (1896). The English rule precluded a new
trial in these circumstances, and circuit Justice Story adopted that view. United
States v. Gilbert, 25 Fed. Cas. 1287 (No. 15,204) (C.C.D.Mass. 1834). The history
is briefly surveyed in Justice Frankfurter’s dissent in Green v. United States, 355
U.S. 184, 200–05 (1957).
121 Green v. United States, 355 U.S. 184, 197 (1957). The more recent cases continue
to reject a ‘‘waiver’’ theory. E.g., United States v. Dinitz, 424 U.S. 600, 609
n.11 (1976); United States v. Scott, 437 U.S. 82, 99 (1978).
122 Justice Holmes in dissent in Kepner v. United States, 195 U.S. 100, 134
(1904), rejected the ‘‘waiver’’ theory and propounded a theory of ‘‘continuing jeopardy,’’
which also continues to be rejected. See discussion, supra. In some cases, a
are functional equivalents of acquittals, whereas all other dismissals
are functional equivalents of mistrials.
Reprosecution Following Conviction
A basic purpose of the double jeopardy clause is to protect a
defendant ‘‘against a second prosecution for the same offense after
conviction.’’ 117 It is ‘‘settled’’ that ‘‘no man can be twice lawfully
punished for the same offense.’’ 118 Of course, the defendant’s interest
in finality, which informs much of double jeopardy jurisprudence,
is quite attenuated following conviction, and he will most
likely appeal, whereas the prosecution will ordinarily be content
with its judgment. 119 The situation involving reprosecution ordinarily
arises, therefore, only in the context of successful defense appeals
and controversies over punishment.
Reprosecution After Reversal on Defendant’s Appeal.—
Generally, a defendant who is successful in having his conviction
set aside on appeal may be tried again for the same offense, the
assumption being made in the first case on the subject that, by appealing,
a defendant has ‘‘waived’’ his objection to further prosecution
by challenging the original conviction. 120 Although it has characterized
the ‘‘waiver’’ theory as ‘‘totally unsound and indefensible,’’
121 the Court has been hesitant in formulating a new theory
in maintaining the practice. 122
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AMENDMENT 5—RIGHTS OF PERSONS 1383
concept of ‘‘election’’ by the defendant has been suggested, United States v. Scott,
437 U.S. 82, 93 (1978); Jeffers v. United States, 432 U.S. 137, 152–54 (1977), but
it is not clear how this formulation might differ from ‘‘waiver.’’ Chief Justice Burger
has suggested that ‘‘probably a more satisfactory explanation’’ for permissibility of
retrial in this situation ‘‘lies in analysis of the respective interests involved,’’ Breed
v. Jones, 421 U.S. 519, 533–35 (1975), and a determination that on balance the interests
of both prosecution and defense are well served by the rule. See United
States v. Tateo, 377 U.S. 463, 466 (1964); Tibbs v. Florida, 457 U.S. 31, 39–40
(1982).
123 355 U.S. 184 (1957).
124 The decision necessarily overruled Trono v. United States, 199 U.S. 521
(1905), although the Court purported to distinguish the decision. Green v. United
States, 355 U.S. 184, 194–97 (1957). See also Brantley v. Georgia, 217 U.S. 284
(1910) (no due process violation where defendant is convicted of higher offense on
second trial).
125 See also Price v. Georgia, 398 U.S. 323 (1970). The defendant was tried for
murder and was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. He obtained a reversal, was
again tried for murder, and again convicted of involuntary manslaughter. Acknowledging
that, after reversal, Price could have been tried for involuntary manslaughter,
the Court nonetheless reversed the second conviction because he had
been subjected to the hazard of twice being tried for murder, in violation of the double
jeopardy clause, and the effect on the jury of the murder charge being pressed
could have prejudiced him to the extent of the second conviction. But cf. Morris v.
Mathews, 475 U.S. 237 (1986) (inadequate showing of prejudice resulting from reducing
jeopardy-barred conviction for aggravated murder to non-jeopardy-barred
conviction for first degree murder). ‘‘To prevail in a case like this, the defendant
must show that, but for the improper inclusion of the jeopardy-barred charge, the
result of the proceeding probably would have been different.’’ Id. at 247.
126 437 U.S. 1 (1978).
An exception to full application of the retrial rule exists, however,
when defendant on trial for an offense is convicted of a lesser
offense and succeeds in having that conviction set aside. Thus, in
Green v. United States, 123 the defendant had been placed on trial
for first degree murder but convicted of second degree murder; the
Court held that, following reversal of that conviction, he could not
be tried again for first degree murder, although he certainly could
be for second degree murder, on the theory that the first ver
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