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dict
was an implicit acquittal of the first degree murder charge. 124
Even though the Court thought the jury’s action in the first trial
was clearly erroneous, the double jeopardy clause required that the
jury’s implicit acquittal be respected. 125
Still another exception arises out of appellate reversals grounded
on evidentiary insufficiency. Thus, in Burks v. United States, 126
the appellate court set aside the defendant’s conviction on the basis
that the prosecution had failed to rebut defendant’s proof of insanity.
In directing that the defendant could not be retried, the Court
observed that if the trial court ‘‘had so held in the first instance,
as the reviewing court said it should have done, a judgment of acquittal
would have been entered and, of course, petitioner could not
be retried for the same offense. . . . [I]t should make no difference
that the reviewing court, rather than the trial court, determined
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1384 AMENDMENT 5—RIGHTS OF PERSONS
127 Id. at 10–11. See also Greene v. Massey, 437 U.S. 19 (1978) (remanding for
determination whether appellate majority had reversed for insufficient evidence or
whether some of the majority had based decision on trial error); Hudson v. Louisiana,
450 U.S. 40 (1981) (Burks applies where appellate court finds some but insufficient
evidence adduced, not only where it finds no evidence). Burks was distinguished
in Justices of Boston Municipal Court v. Lydon, 466 U.S. 294 (1984), holding
that a defendant who had elected to undergo a bench trial with no appellate
review but with right of trial de novo before a jury (and with appellate review available)
could not bar trial de novo and reverse his bench trial conviction by asserting
that the conviction had been based on insufficient evidence. The two-tiered system
in effect gave the defendant two chances at acquittal; under those circumstances
jeopardy was not terminated by completion of the first entirely optional stage.
128 Tibbs v. Florida, 457 U.S. 31 (1982). The decision was 5-to-4, the dissent arguing
that weight and insufficiency determinations should be given identical double
jeopardy clause treatment. Id. at 47 (Justices White, Brennan, Marshall, and Blackmun).
129 Lockhart v. Nelson, 488 U.S. 33 (1988) (state may reprosecute under habitual
offender statute even though evidence of a prior conviction was improperly admitted;
at retrial, state may attempt to establish other prior convictions as to which
no proof was offered at prior trial).
130 Ex parte Lange, 85 U.S. (18 Wall.) 163, 173 (1874); North Carolina v. Pearce,
395 U.S. 711, 717 (1969).
131 Ex parte Lange, 85 U.S. (18 Wall.) 163 (1874).
the evidence to be insufficient.’’ 127 The policy underlying the clause
of not allowing the prosecution to make repeated efforts to convict
forecloses giving the prosecution another opportunity to supply evidence
which it failed to muster in the first proceeding. On the
other hand, if a reviewing court reverses a jury conviction because
of its disagreement on the weight rather than the sufficiency of the
evidence, retrial is permitted; the appellate court’s decision does
not mean that acquittal was the only proper course, hence the deference
required for acquittals is not merited. 128 Also, the Burks
rule does not bar reprosecution following a reversal based on erroneous
admission of evidence, even if the remaining properly admitted
evidence would be insufficient to convict. 129
Sentence Increases.—The double jeopardy clause protects
against imposition of multiple punishment for the same offense. 130
The application of the principle leads, however, to a number of
complexities. In a simple case, it was held that where a court inadvertently
imposed both a fine and imprisonment for a crime for
which the law authorized one or the other but not both, it could
not, after the fine had been paid and the defendant had entered his
short term of confinement, recall the defendant and change its
judgment by sentencing him to imprisonment only. 131 But the
Court has held that the imposition of a sentence does not from the
moment of imposition have the finality that a judgment of acquittal
has. Thus, it has long been recognized that in the same term of
court and before the defendant has begun serving the sentence the
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AMENDMENT 5—RIGHTS OF PERSONS 1385
132 Bozza v. United States, 330 U.S. 160 (1947). See also Pollard v. United
States, 352 U.S. 354, 359–60 (1957) (imposition of prison sentence two years after
court imposed an invalid sentence of probation approved). Dicta in some cases had
cast doubt on the constitutionality of the practice. United States v. Benz, 282 U.S.
304, 307 (1931). However, United States v. DiFrancesco, 449 U.S. 117, 133–36, 138–
39 (1980), upholding a statutory provision allowing the United States to appeal a
sentence imposed on a ‘‘dangerous special offender,’’ removes any doubt on that
score. The Court there reserved decision on whether the government may appeal a
sentence that the defendant has already begun to serve.
133 North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 719–21 (1969). See also Chaffin v.
Stynchcombe, 412 U.S. 17, 23–24 (1973). The principle of implicit acquittal of an offense
drawn from Green v. United States, 355 U.S. 184 (1957), does not similarly
apply to create an implicit acquittal of a higher sentence. Pearce does hold that a
defendant must be credited with the time served against his new sentence. 395 U.S.
at 717–19.
134 Bullington v. Missouri, 451 U.S. 430 (1981). Four Justices dissented. Id. at
447 (Justices Powell, White, Rehnquist, and Chief Justice Burger). The Court disapproved
Stroud v. United States, 251 U.S. 15 (1919), although formally distinguishing
it. Bullington was followed in Arizona v. Rumsey, 467 U.S. 203 (1984), also
involving a separate sentencing proceeding in which a life imprisonment sentence
amounted to an acquittal on imposition of the death penalty. Rumsey was decided
by 7–2 vote, with only Justices White and Rehnquist dissenting. In Monge v. California,
524 U.S. 721 (1998), the Court refused to extend the ‘‘narrow’’ Bullington exception
outside the area of capital punishment.
135 United States v. DiFrancesco, 449 U.S. 117 (1980). Four Justices dissented.
Id. at 143, 152 (Justices Brennan, White, Marshall, and Stevens).
court may recall him and increase his sentence. 132 Moreover, a defendant
who is retried after he is successful in overturning his first
conviction is not protected by the double jeopardy clause against receiving
a greater sentence upon his second conviction. 133 An exception
exists with respect to capital punishment, the Court having
held that government may not again seek the death penalty on retrial
when on the first trial the jury had declined to impose a death
sentence. 134
Applying and modifying these principles, the Court narrowly
approved the constitutionality of a statutory provision for sentencing
of ‘‘dangerous special offenders,’’ which authorized prosecution
appeals of sentences and permitted the appellate court to affirm,
reduce, or increase the sentence. 135 The Court held that the
provision did not offend the double jeopardy clause. Sentences had
never carried the finality that attached to acquittal, and its precedents
indicated to the Court that imposition of a sentence less than
the maximum was in no sense an ‘‘acquittal’’ of the higher sentence.
Appeal resulted in no further trial or other proceedings to
which a defendant might be subjected, only the imposition of a new
sentence. An increase in a sentence would not constitute multiple
punishment, the Court continued, inasmuch as it would be within
the allowable sentence and the defendant could have no legitimate
expectation of finality in the sentence as first given because the
statutory scheme alerted him to the possibility of increase. Simi-
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1386 AMENDMENT 5—RIGHTS OF PERSONS
136 Jones v. Thomas, 491 U.S. 376, 381–82 (1989).
137 United States v. Watts, 519 U.S. 148, 154 (1997) (relying on Witte v. United
States, 515 U.S. 389 (1995), and holding that a sentencing court may consider earlier
conduct of which the defendant was acquitted, so long as that conduct is proved
by a preponderance of the evidence). See also Almendarez-Torres v. United States,
523 U.S. 224 (1998) (Congress’ decision to treat recidivism as a sentencing factor
does not violate due process); Monge v. California, 524 U.S. 721 (1998) (retrial is
permissible following appellate holding of failure of proof relating to sentence enhancement).
Justice Scalia, whose dissent in Almendarez-Torres argued that there
was constitutional doubt over whether recidivism factors that increase a maximum
sentence must be treated as a separate offense for double jeopardy purposes (523
U.S. at 248), answered that question affirmatively in his dissent in Monge. 524 U.S.
740-41.
138 See discussion supra under ‘‘Development and Scope.’’
larly upheld as within the allowable range of punishment contemplated
by the legislature was a remedy for invalid multiple
punishments under consecutive sentences: a shorter felony conviction
was vacated, and time served was credited to the life sentence
imposed for felony-murder. Even though the first sentence had
been commuted and hence fully satisfied at the time the trial court
revised the second sentence, the resulting punishment was ‘‘no
greater than the legislature intended,’’ hence there was no double
jeopardy violation. 136
The Court is also quite deferential to legislative classification
of recidivism sentencing enhancement factors as relating only to
sentencing and as not constituting elements of an ‘‘offense’’ that
must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt. Ordinarily, therefore,
sentence enhancements cannot be construed as additional punishment
for the previous offense, and the Double Jeopardy Clause is
not implicated. ‘‘Sentencing enhancements do not punish a defendant
for crimes for which he was not convicted, but rather increase
his sentence because of the manner in which he committed his
crime of conviction.’’ 137
‘‘For the Same Offence’’
Sometimes as difficult as determining when a defendant has
been placed in jeopardy is determining whether he was placed in
jeopardy for the same offense. As noted previously, the same conduct
may violate the laws of two different sovereigns, and a defendant
may be proceeded against by both because each may have different
interests to serve. 138 The same conduct may transgress two
or more different statutes, because laws reach lesser and greater
parts of one item of conduct, or may violate the same statute more
than once, as when one robs several people in a group at the same
time.
Legislative Discretion as to Multiple Sentences.—It frequently
happens that one activity of a criminal nature will violate
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AMENDMENT 5—RIGHTS OF PERSONS 1387
139 There are essentially two kinds of situations here. There are ‘‘double-description’’
cases in which criminal law contains more than one prohibition for conduct
arising out of a single transaction. E.g., Gore v. United States, 357 U.S. 386, 392–
93 (1958) (one sale of narcotics resulted in three separate counts: (1) sale of drugs
not in pursuance of a written order, (2) sale of drugs not in the original stamped
package, and (3) sale of drugs with knowledge that they had been unlawfully imported).
And there are ‘‘unit-of-prosecution’’ cases in which the same conduct may
violate the same statutory prohibition more than once. E.g., Bell v. United States,
349 U.S. 81 (1955) (defendant who transported two women across state lines for an
immoral purpose in one trip in same car indicted on two counts of violating Mann
Act). See Westen & Drubel, Toward a General Theory of Double Jeopardy, 1978 SUP.
CT. REV. 81, 111–22.
140 Albernaz v. United States, 450 U.S. 333, 343–44 (1981) (defendants convicted
on separate counts of conspiracy to import marijuana and conspiracy to distribute
marijuana, both charges relating to the same marijuana.) The concurrence objected
that the clause does preclude multiple punishments for separate statutory offenses
unless each requires proof of a fact that the others do not. Id. at 344. Inasmuch as
the case involved separate offenses which met this test, Albernaz strictly speaking
is not a square holding and previous dicta is otherwise, but Albernaz is well-considered
dicta in view of the positions of at least four of its Justices who have objected
to the dicta in other cases suggesting a constitutional restraint by the clause.
Whalen v. United States, 445 U.S. 684, 695, 696, 699 (1980) (Justices White, Blackmun,
Rehnquist, and Chief Justice Burger).
141 Missouri v. Hunter, 459 U.S. 359 (1983) (separate offenses of ‘‘first degree
robbery,’’ defined to include robbery under threat of violence, and ‘‘armed criminal
action’’). Only Justices Marshall and Stevens dissented, arguing that the legislature
should not be totally free to prescribe multiple punishment for the same conduct,
and that the same rules should govern multiple prosecutions and multiple punishments.
142 United States v. Universal C.I.T. Corp., 344 U.S. 218, 221–22 (1952).
one or more laws or that one or more violations may be charged. 139
Although the question is not totally free of doubt, it appears that
the double jeopardy clause does not limit the legislative power to
split a single transaction into separate crimes so as to give the
prosecution a choice of charges that may be tried in one proceeding,
thereby making multiple punishments possible for essentially one
transaction. 140 ‘‘Where a legislature specifically authorizes cumulative
punishment under two statutes, regardless of whether those
two statutes proscribe the ‘same’ conduct under Blockburger, a
court’s task of statutory construction is at an end and . . . . the trial
court or jury may impose cumulative punishment under such statutes
in a single trial.’’ 141
The clause does, however, create a rule of construction, a presumption
against the judiciary imposing multiple punishments for
the same transaction unless Congress has ‘‘spoken in language that
is clear and definite’’ 142 to pronounce its intent that multiple punishments
indeed be imposed. The commonly used test in determining
whether Congress would have wanted to punish as separate
offenses conduct occurring in the same transaction, absent otherwise
clearly expressed intent, is the ‘‘same evidence’’ rule. The rule,
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1388 AMENDMENT 5—RIGHTS OF PERSONS
143 284 U.S. 299, 304 (1932). This case itself was not a double jeopardy case, but
it derived the rule from Gavieres v. United States, 220 U.S. 338, 342 (1911), which
was a double jeopardy case. See also Carter v. McClaughry, 183 U.S. 365 (1902);
Morgan v. Devine, 237 U.S. 632 (1915); Albrecht v. United States, 273 U.S. 1 (1927);
Pinkerton v. United States, 328 U.S. 640 (1946); American Tobacco Co. v. United
States, 328 U.S. 781 (1946); United States v. Michener, 331 U.S. 789 (1947); Pereira
v. United States, 347 U.S. 1 (1954); Callanan v. United States, 364 U.S. 587 (1961).
144 357 U.S. 386 (1958).
145 See also Albernaz v. United States, 450 U.S. 333 (1981); Iannelli v. United
States, 420 U.S. 770 (1975) (defendant convicted on two counts, one of the substantive
offense, one of conspiracy to commit the substantive offense; defense raised
variation of Blockburger test, Wharton’s Rule requiring that one may not be punished
for conspiracy to commit a crime when the nature of the crime necessitates
participation of two or more persons for its commission; Court recognized Wharton’s
Rule as a double-jeopardy inspired presumption of legislative intent but held that
congressional intent in this case was ‘‘clear and unmistakable’’ that both offenses
be punished separately).
146 United States v. Felix, 503 U.S. 378, 391 (1992). But cf. Rutledge v. United
States, 517 U.S. 292 (1996) (21 U.S.C. § 846, prohibiting conspiracy to commit drug
offenses, does not require proof of any fact that is not also a part of the continuing
criminal enterprise offense under 21 U.S.C. § 848, so there are not two separate offenses).
147 Garrett v. United States, 471 U.S. 773 (1985) (‘‘continuing criminal enterprise’’
is a separate offense under the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and
Control Act of 1970).
148 445 U.S. 684 (1980).
announced in Blockburger v. United States, 143 ‘‘is that where the
same act or transaction constitutes a violation of two distinct statutory
provisions, the test to be applied to determine whether there
are two offenses or only one, is whether each provision requires
proof of a fact which the other does not.’’ Thus, in Gore v. United
States, 144 the Court held that defendant’s one act of selling narcotics
had violated three distinct criminal statutes, each of which
required proof of a fact not required by the others; prosecuting him
on all three counts in the same proceeding was therefore permissible.
145 So too, the same evidence rule does not upset the ‘‘established
doctrine’’ that, for double jeopardy purposes, ‘‘a conspiracy to
commit a crime is a separate offense from the crime itself,’’ 146 or
the related principle that Congress may prescribe that predicate offenses
and ‘‘continuing criminal enterprise’’ are separate offenses.
147 On the other hand, in Whalen v. United States, 148 the
Court determined that a defendant could not be separately punished
for rape and for killing the same victim in the perpetration
of the rape, because it is not the case that each statute requires
proof of a fact that the other does not, and no indication existed
in the statutes and the legislative history that Congress wanted
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AMENDMENT 5—RIGHTS OF PERSONS 1389
149 The Court reasoned that a conviction for killing in the course of rape could
not be had without providing all of the elements of the offense of rape. See also Jeffers
v. United States, 432 U.S. 137 (1977) (no indication in legislative history Congress
intended defendant to be prosecuted both for conspiring to distribute drugs
and for distributing drugs in concert with five or more persons); Simpson v. United
States, 435 U.S. 6 (1978) (defendant improperly prosecuted both for committing
bank robbery with a firearm and for using a firearm to commit a felony); Bell v.
United States, 349 U.S. 81 (1955) (simultaneous transportation of two women across
state lines for immoral purposes one violation of Mann Act rather than two).
150 United States v. Broce, 488 U.S. 563 (1989) (defendant who pled guilty to
two separate conspiracy counts is barred from collateral attack alleging that in fact
there was only one conspiracy and that double jeopardy applied).
151 See Grady v. Corbin, 495 U.S. 508, 518–19 (1990).
152 432 U.S. 161 (1977). Cf. In re Nielson, 131 U.S. 176 (1889) (prosecution of
Mormon for adultery held impermissible following his conviction for cohabiting with
more than one woman, even though second prosecution required proof of an additional
fact—that he was married to another woman).
153 See also Harris v. Oklahoma, 433 U.S. 682 (1977) (defendant who had been
convicted of felony murder for participating in a store robbery with another person
who shot a store clerk could not be prosecuted for robbing the store, since store robbery
was a lesser-included crime in the offense of felony murder).
154 Illinois v. Vitale, 447 U.S. 410 (1980).
the separate offenses punished. 149 In this as in other areas, a
guilty plea ordinarily precludes collateral attack. 150
Successive Prosecutions for ‘‘the Same Offense’’.—Successive
prosecutions raise fundamental double jeopardy concerns extending
beyond those raised by enhanced and multiple punishments.
It is more burdensome for a defendant to face charges in
separate proceedings, and if those proceedings are strung out over
a lengthy period the defendant is forced to live in a continuing
state of uncertainty. At the same time, multiple prosecutions allow
the state to hone its trial strategies through successive attempts at
conviction. 151 In Brown v. Ohio, 152 the Court, apparently for the
first time, applied the same evidence test to bar successive prosecutions
in state court for different statutory offenses involving the
same conduct. The defendant had been convicted of ‘‘joyriding,’’ defined
as operating a motor vehicle without the owner’s consent, and
was then prosecuted and convicted of stealing the same automobile.
Because the state courts had conceded that joyriding was a lesser
included offense of auto theft, the Court observed that each offense
required the same proof and for double jeopardy purposes met the
Blockburger test. The second conviction was overturned. 153 Application
of the same principles resulted in a holding that a prior conviction
of failing to reduce speed to avoid an accident did not preclude
a second trial for involuntary manslaughter, inasmuch as failing to
reduce speed was not a necessary element of the statutory offense
of manslaughter, unless the prosecution in the second trial had to
prove failing to reduce speed to establish this particular offense. 154
In 1990, the Court modified the Brown approach, stating that the
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1390 AMENDMENT 5—RIGHTS OF PERSONS
155 Grady v. Corbin, 495 U.S. 508 (1990) (holding that the state could not prosecute
a traffic offender for negligent homicide because it would attempt to prove
conduct for which the defendant had already been prosecuted—driving while intoxicated
and failure to keep to the right of the median). A subsequent prosecution is
barred, the Court explained, if the government, to establish an essential element of
an offense, will prove conduct that constitutes an offense for which the defendant
has already been prosecuted. Id. at 521.
156 United States v. Dixon, 509 U.S. 688, 709 (1993) (applying Blockburger test
to determine whether prosecution for a crime, following conviction for criminal contempt
for violation of a court order prohibiting that crime, constitutes double jeopardy).
157 The Court suggested that if the legislature had provided that joyriding is a
separate offense for each day the vehicle is operated without the owner’s consent,
so that the two indictments each specifying a different date on which the offense
occurred would have required different proof, the result might have been different,
but this, of course, met the Blockburger problem. Brown v. Ohio, 432 U.S. 161, 169
n.8 (1977). The Court also suggested that an exception might be permitted where
the State is unable to proceed on the more serious charge at the outset because the
facts necessary to sustain that charge had not occurred or had not been discovered.
Id. at 169 n.7. See also Jeffers v. United States, 432 U.S. 137, 150–54 (1977) (plurality
opinion) (exception where defendant elects separate trials); Ohio v. Johnson,
467 U.S. 493 (1984) (trial court’s acceptance of guilty plea to lesser included offense
and dismissal of remaining charges over prosecution’s objections does not bar subsequent
prosecution on those ‘‘remaining’’ counts).
158 United States v. Felix, 503 U.S. 378, 389 (1992). The fact that Felix constituted
a ‘‘large exception’’ to Grady was one of the reasons the Court cited in overruling
Grady. United States v. Dixon, 509 U.S. 688, 709–10 (1993).
159 Witte v. United States, 515 U.S. 389 (1995) (consideration of defendant’s alleged
cocaine dealings in determining sentence for marijuana offenses does not bar
subsequent prosecution on cocaine charges).
160 Monge v. California, 524 U.S. 721, 728 (1998).
appropriate focus is on same conduct rather than same evidence. 155
That interpretation held sway only three years, however, before
being repudiated as ‘‘wrong in principle [and] unstable in application.’’
156 The Brown Court had noted some limitations applicable to
its holding, 157 and more have emerged subsequently. Principles appropriate
in the ‘‘classically simple’’ lesser-included-offense and related
situations are not readily transposible to ‘‘multilayered conduct’’
governed by the law of conspiracy and continuing criminal
enterprise, and it remains the law that ‘‘a substantive crime and
a conspiracy to commit that crime are not the ‘same offense’ for
double jeopardy purposes.’’ 158 For double jeopardy purposes, a defendant
is ‘‘punished . . . only for the offense of which [he] is convicted’’;
a later prosecution or later punishment is not barred simply
because the underlying criminal activity has been considered at
sentencing for a different offense. 159 Similarly, recidivism-based
sentence enhancement does not constitute multiple punishment for
the ‘‘same’’ prior offense, but instead is a stiffened penalty for the
later crime. 160
The ‘‘Same Transaction’’ Problem.—The same conduct may
also give rise to multiple offenses in a way that would satisfy the
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AMENDMENT 5—RIGHTS OF PERSONS 1391
161 356 U.S. 464 (1958). See also Ciucci v. Illinois, 356 U.S. 571 (1958).
162 397 U.S. 436 (1970).
163 ‘‘‘Collateral estoppel’ is an awkward phrase . . . [which] means simply that
when an issue of ultimate fact has once been determined by a final judgment, that
issue cannot again be litigated between the same parties in any future lawsuit.’’ Id.
at 443. First developed in civil litigation, the doctrine was applied in a criminal case
in United States v. Oppenheimer, 242 U.S. 85 (1916). See
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