Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/397/436/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 19:59:09+00:00

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Three or four men robbed six poker players. Petitioner was separately charged with having robbed one of the players, Knight, who, along with three others, testified for the prosecution that each had been robbed. The State's evidence that petitioner had been one of the robbers was weak. The defense offered no testimony. The trial judge instructed the jury that, if it found that petitioner participated in the robbery, the theft of any money from Knight would sustain a conviction, and that, if petitioner was one of the robbers, he was guilty even though he had not personally robbed Knight. The jury found petitioner "not guilty due to insufficient evidence." Thereafter petitioner, following denial of his motion for dismissal based on the previous acquittal, was tried for having robbed another poker player, Roberts, and was convicted. Following affirmance by the Missouri Supreme Court and unsuccessful collateral attack in the state courts, petitioner brought this habeas corpus action in the District Court, claiming that the second prosecution had violated the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment. The District Court denied the writ, relying on Hoag v. New Jersey, 356 U. S. 464, which, on virtually identical facts, held that there was no violation of due process. The Court of Appeals affirmed. Thereafter, this Court, in Benton v. Maryland, 395 U. S. 784, held that the Fifth Amendment guarantee against double jeopardy is enforceable against the States through the Fourteenth Amendment, a decision which had fully "retroactive" effect, North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U. S. 711.
1. The Fifth Amendment guarantee against double jeopardy, applicable here through the Fourteenth Amendment by virtue of Benton v. Maryland, supra, embodies collateral estoppel as a constitutional requirement. Pp. 397 U. S. 437-444.
2. Since, on the record in this case, the jury in the first trial had determined by its verdict that petitioner was not one of the robbers, the State, under the doctrine of collateral estoppel, was constitutionally foreclosed from relitigating that issue in another trial. Pp. 397 U. S. 445-447.
399 F.2d 40, reversed and remanded.
Sometime in the early hours of the morning of January 10, 1960, six men were engaged in a poker game in the basement of the home of John Gladson at Lee's Summit, Missouri. Suddenly three or four masked men, armed with a shotgun and pistols, broke into the basement and robbed each of the poker players of money and various articles of personal property. The robbers -- and it has never been clear whether there were three or four of them -- then fled in a car belonging to one of the victims of the robbery. Shortly thereafter, the stolen car was discovered in a field, and, later that morning, three men were arrested by a state trooper while they were walking on a highway not far from where the abandoned car had been found. The petitioner was arrested by another officer some distance away.
The cross-examination of these witnesses was brief, and it was aimed primarily at exposing the weakness of their identification testimony. Defense counsel made no attempt to question their testimony regarding the holdup itself or their claims as to their losses. Knight testified without contradiction that the robbers had stolen from him his watch, $250 in cash, and about $500 in checks. His billfold, which had been found by the police in the possession of one of the three other men accused of the robbery, was admitted in evidence. The defense offered no testimony, and waived final argument.
The trial judge instructed the jury that, if it found that the petitioner was one of the participants in the armed robbery, the theft of "any money" from Knight would sustain a conviction. [Footnote 2] He also instructed the jury that, if the petitioner was one of the robbers, he was guilty under the law even if he had not personally robbed Knight. [Footnote 3] The jury -- though not instructed to elaborate upon its verdict -- found the petitioner "not guilty due to insufficient evidence."
same, though this time their testimony was substantially stronger on the issue of the petitioner's identity. For example, two witnesses who at the first. trial had been wholly unable to identify the petitioner as one of the robbers now testified that his features, size, and mannerisms matched those of one of their assailants. All other witness who before had identified the petitioner only by his size and actions now also remembered him by the unusual sound of his voice. The State further refined its case at the second trial by declining to call one of the participants in the poker game whose identification testimony at the first trial had been conspicuously negative. The case went to the jury on instructions virtually identical to those given at the first trial. This time, the jury found the petitioner guilty, and he was sentenced to a 36-year term in the state penitentiary.
of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit affirmed, also upon the authority of Hoag v. New Jersey, supra. [Footnote 5] We granted certiorari to consider the important constitutional question this case presents. 393 U.S. 1115.
petitioner's later prosecution and conviction violated due process. [Footnote 6]"
356 U.S. at 356 U. S. 466. The Court found it unnecessary to decide whether "collateral estoppel" -- the principle that bars relitigation between the same parties of issues actually determined at a previous trial -- is a due process requirement in a state criminal trial, since it accepted New Jersey's determination that the petitioner's previous acquittal did not, in any event, give rise to such an estoppel. 356 U.S. at 356 U. S. 471. And in the view the Court took of the issues presented, it did not, of course, even approach consideration of whether collateral estoppel is an ingredient of the Fifth Amendment guarantee against double jeopardy.
bounds of "fundamental fairness," but a matter of constitutional fact we must decide through an examination of the entire record. Cf. New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U. S. 254, 376 U. S. 285; Niemotko v. Maryland, 340 U. S. 268, 271; Watts v. Indiana, 338 U. S. 49, 338 U. S. 51; Chambers v. Florida, 309 U. S. 227, 309 U. S. 229; Norris v. Alabama, 294 U. S. 587, 294 U. S. 590.
"It cannot be that the safeguards of the person, so often and so rightly mentioned with solemn reverence, are less than those that protect from a liability in debt."
"[i]t is much too late to suggest that this principle is not fully applicable to a former judgment in a criminal case, either because of lack of 'mutuality' or because the judgment may reflect only a belief that the Government had not met the higher burden of proof exacted in such cases for the Government's evidence as a whole, although not necessarily as to every link in the chain."
United States v. Kramer, 289 F.2d 909, 913.
"examine the record of a prior proceeding, taking into account the pleadings, evidence, charge, and other relevant matter, and conclude whether a rational jury could have grounded its verdict upon an issue other than that which the defendant seeks to foreclose from consideration. [Footnote 8]"
constitutional guarantee may embrace, North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U. S. 711, 395 U. S. 717, it surely protects a man who has been acquitted from having to "run the gauntlet" a second time. Green v. United States, 355 U. S. 184, 355 U. S. 190.
"No doubt the prosecutor felt the state had a provable case on the first charge and, when he lost, he did what every good attorney would do -- he refined his presentation in light of the turn of events at the first trial."
There can be no doubt of the "retroactivity" of the Court's decision in Benton v. Maryland. In North. Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U. S. 711, decided the same day as Benton, the Court unanimously accorded fully "retroactive" effect to the Benton doctrine.
"The Court instructs the jury that, if you believe and find from the evidence in this case, beyond a reasonable doubt, that, at the County of Jackson and State of Missouri, on the 10th day of January, 1960, the defendant herein, BOB FRED ASHE, alias BOBBY FRED ASHE, either alone or knowingly acting in concert with others, did then and there with force and arms in and upon one Don Knight, unlawfully and feloniously make an assault and took and carried away any money from his person or in his presence and against his will, by force and violence to his person, or by putting him in fear of some immediate injury to his person, with felonious intent to convert the same to his own use, without any honest claim to said money on the part of the defendant and with intent to permanently deprive the said Don Knight of his ownership and without the consent of the said Don Knight, if such be your finding, then you will find the defendant guilty of Robbery, First Degree, and so find in your verdict."
"The Court instructs the jury that all persons are equally guilty who act together with a common intent in the commission of a crime, and a crime so committed by two or more persons jointly is the act of all and of each one so acting."
"The Court instructs the jury that, when two or more persons knowingly act together in the commission of an unlawful act or purpose, then whatever either does in furtherance of such unlawful act or purpose is in law the act and deed of each of such persons."
"However persuasive the dissenting opinions in the Hoag case may be, it is the duty of this Court to follow the law as stated by the Supreme Court of the United States until it expresses a contrary view. Certainly the factual circumstances of this case provide an excellent opportunity for reexamination of the questions presented. An examination of the transcript of both trials shows that, in both, the single issue in real contest, as distinguished from the issues that may be said to have been in technical dispute, was the question of whether petitioner was or was not present at the time the money was taken from the poker table and the other property taken from persons of the respective poker players."
"It usually is difficult for a lower federal court to forecast with assurance a Supreme Court decision as to the continuing validity of a holding of a decade ago by a Court then divided as closely as possible. This is particularly so when the decision is in the rapidly developing and sensitive area of the criminal law and the Fourteenth Amendment Bill of Rights relationship. We feel, however, that our task is not to forecast, but to follow, those dictates, despite their closeness of decision, which at this moment in time are on the books and for us to read. . . ."
"the unexpected failure of four of the State's witnesses at the earlier trial to identify petitioner, after two of these witnesses had previously identified him in the course of the police investigation. Indeed, after the second of the two witnesses failed to identify petitioner, the State pleaded surprise and attempted to impeach his testimony. We cannot say that, after such an unexpected turn of events, the State's decision to try petitioner for the Yager robbery was so arbitrary or lacking in justification that it amounted to a denial of those concepts constituting 'the very essence of a scheme of ordered justice, which is due process.'"
356 U.S. at 356 U. S. 469-470.
See also Coffey v. United States, 116 U. S. 436, 116 U. S. 442-443; Frank v. Mangum, 237 U. S. 309, 237 U. S. 333-334; Sealfon v. United States, 332 U. S. 575; United States v. De Angelo, 138 F.2d 466; United States v Curzio, 170 F.2d 354; Yawn v. United States, 244 F.2d 235; United States v. Cowart, 118 F.Supp. 903.
Mayers & Yarbrough, Bis Vexari: New Trials and Successive Prosecutions, 74 Harv.L.Rev. 1, 38-39. See Yawn v. United States, supra; United States v. De Angelo, supra.
"If a later court is permitted to state that the jury may have disbelieved substantial and uncontradicted evidence of the prosecution on a point the defendant did not contest, the possible multiplicity of prosecutions is staggering. . . . In fact, such a restrictive definition of 'determined' amounts simply to a rejection of collateral estoppel, since it is impossible to imagine a statutory offense in which the government has to prove only one element or issue to sustain a conviction."
It is true, as this Court said in Hoag v. New Jersey, supra, that we have never squarely held collateral estoppel to be a constitutional requirement. Until perhaps a century ago, few situations arose calling for its application. For at common law, and under early federal criminal statutes, offense categories were relatively few and distinct. A single course of criminal conduct was likely to yield but a single offense. See Comment, Statutory Implementation of Double Jeopardy Clauses: New Life for a Moribund Constitutional Guarantee, 65 Yale L.J. 339, 342. In more recent times, with the advent of specificity in draftsmanship and the extraordinary proliferation of overlapping and related statutory offenses, it became possible for prosecutors to spin out a startlingly numerous series of offenses from a single alleged criminal transaction. See Note, Double Jeopardy and the Multiple-Count Indictment, 57 Yale L..J. 132, 133. As the number of statutory offenses multiplied, the potential for unfair and abusive reprosecutions became far more pronounced. Comment, Twice in Jeopardy, 75 Yale L.J. 262, 279-280; Note, Double Jeopardy and the Concept of Identity of Offenses, 7 Brooklyn L.Rev. 79, 82. The federal courts soon recognized the need to prevent such abuses through the doctrine of collateral estoppel, and it became a safeguard firmly embedded in federal law. See n 7, supra. Whether its basis was a constitutional one was a question of no more than academic concern until this Court's decision in Benton v. Maryland, supra.
I join in the opinion of the Court, although I must reject any implication in that opinion that the so-called due process test of "fundamental fairness" might have been appropriate as a constitutional standard at some point in the past, or might have a continuing relevancy today in some areas of constitutional law. In my view, it is a wholly fallacious idea that a judge's sense of what is fundamentally "fair" or "unfair" should ever serve as a substitute for the explicit, written provisions of our Bill of Rights. One of these provisions is the Fifth Amendment's prohibition against putting a man twice in jeopardy. On several occasions, I have stated my view that the Double Jeopardy Clause bars a State or the Federal Government or the two together from subjecting a defendant to the hazards of trial and possible conviction more than once for the same alleged offense. Bartkus v. Illinois, 359 U. S. 121, 359 U. S. 150 (1959) (dissenting opinion); Abbate v. United States, 359 U. S. 187, 359 U. S. 201 (1959) (dissenting opinion); Ciucci v. Illinois, 356 U.S.
571, 356 U. S. 575 (1958) (dissenting statement); Green v. United States, 355 U. S. 184 (1957). The opinion of the Court in the case today amply demonstrates that the doctrine of collateral estoppel is a basic and essential part of the Constitution's prohibition against double jeopardy. Accordingly, for the reasons stated in the Court's opinion, I fully agree that petitioner's conviction must be reversed.
If I were to judge this case under the traditional standards of Fourteenth Amendment due process, I would adhere to the decision in Hoag v. New Jersey, 356 U. S. 464 (1958), believing that, regardless of the reach of the federal rule of collateral estoppel, it would have been open to a state court to treat the issue differently. However, having acceded in North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U. S. 711, 395 U. S. 744 (1969), to the decision in Benton v. Maryland, 395 U. S. 784 (1969), which, over my dissent, held that the Fourteenth Amendment imposes on the States the standards of the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment, I am satisfied that, on this present record, Ashe's acquittal in the first trial brought double jeopardy standards into play. Hence, I join the Court's opinion. In doing so, I wish to make explicit my understanding that the Court's opinion in no way intimates that the Double Jeopardy Clause embraces to any degree the "same transaction" concept reflected in the concurring opinion of my Brother BRENNAN.
the rule of collateral estoppel had been inapplicable to the facts of this case, it is my view that the Double Jeopardy Clause nevertheless bars the prosecution of petitioner a second time for armed robbery. The two prosecutions, the first for the robbery of Knight and the second for the robbery of Roberts, grew out of one criminal episode, and therefore I think it clear on the facts of this case that the Double Jeopardy Clause prohibited Missouri from prosecuting petitioner for each robbery at a different trial. Abbate v. United States, 359 U. S. 187, 359 U. S. 196-201 (1959) (separate opinion).
"always prevents a State from allowing different offenses arising out of the same act or transaction to be prosecuted separately, as New Jersey has done. For it has long been recognized as the very essence of our federalism that the States should have the widest latitude in the administration of their own systems of criminal justice."
356 U.S. at 356 U. S. 468. But, in the present case, Missouri did not have "the widest latitude," because Benton v. Maryland, 395 U. S. 784 (1969), decided after Hoag, held that the Fifth Amendment guarantee that no person shall "be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb" is enforceable against the States, and North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U. S. 711 (1969), accorded fully retroactive effect to that holding. This means, under our decisions, that federal standards as to what constitutes the "same offence" apply alike to federal and state proceedings; it would be incongruous to have different standards determine the validity of a claim of double jeopardy depending on whether the claim was asserted in a state or federal court. Cf. Malloy v. Hogan, 378 U. S. 1, 378 U. S. 11 (1964).
The Double Jeopardy Clause is a guarantee "that the State with all its resources and power [shall] not be allowed to make repeated attempts to convict an individual for an alleged offense, thereby subjecting him to embarrassment, expense and ordeal and compelling him to live in a continuing state of anxiety and insecurity. . . .
"[U]nless the first indictment were such as the prisoner right have been convicted upon by proof of the facts contained in the second indictment, an acquittal on the first indictment can be no bar to the second."
Rules of Criminal Procedure liberally encourage the joining of parties and charges in a single trial. Rule 8(a) provides for joinder of charges that are similar in character, or arise from the same transaction or from connected transactions or form part of a common scheme or plan. Rule 8(b) provides for joinder of defendants. Rule 13 provides for joinder of separate indictments or informations in a single trial where the offenses alleged could have been included in one indictment or information. [Footnote 2/11] These rules represent considered modern thought concerning the proper structuring of criminal litigation.
related to the subject matter of the action. Rule 23 permits the consolidation of separate claims in a class action; see particularly Rule 23(b)(3).
In addition, principles of res judicata and collateral estoppel caution the civil plaintiff against splitting his case. The doctrine of pendent jurisdiction has furthered single trials of related cases. See United Mine Workers v. Gibbs, supra. Moreover, we have recognized the jurisdiction of three-judge courts to hear statutory claims pendent to the constitutional claim that required their convening. See, e.g., United States v. Georgia Pub. Serv. Comm'n, 371 U. S. 285, 371 U. S. 287-288 (1963); King v. Smith, 392 U. S. 309 (1968).
"If, in civil cases, the law abhors a multiplicity of suits, it is yet more watchful in criminal cases that the crown shall not oppress the subject, or the government the citizen, by unnecessary prosecutions. . . . [This] is a case where the state has thought proper to prosecute the offence in its mildest form, and it is better that the residue of the offence go unpunished than, by sustaining a second indictment, to sanction a practice which might be rendered an instrument of oppression to the citizen."
State v. Cooper, 13 N.J.L. 361, 375-376 (1833).
is consistent with such an exercise of prosecutorial discretion.
Four of the robbery victims testified at the trial. Their testimony conflicted as to whether there were three or four robbers. Gladson testified that he saw four robbers, but could identify only one, a man named Brown. McClendon testified that he saw only three men at any one time during the course of the robbery, and he positively identified Brown, Larson, and Johnson; he also thought he heard petitioner's voice during the robbery, but said he was not sure. Knight thought only three men participated in the robbery, and he could not identify anyone. Roberts said he saw four different men, and he identified them as Brown, Larson, Johnson, and petitioner. Under cross-examination, he conceded that he did not recognize petitioner's voice, and that he did not see his face or his hands. He maintained that he could identify him by his "size and height," even though all the robbers had worn outsized clothing, and even though he could not connect petitioner with the actions of any of the robbers. On this evidence, the jury acquitted petitioner.
identification evidence brought a virtually inevitable conviction.
The prosecution plainly organized its case for the second trial to provide the links missing in the chain of identification evidence that was offered at the first trial. McClendon, who was an unhelpful witness at the first trial, was not called at the second trial. The hesitant and uncertain evidence of Gladson and Roberts at the first trial became detailed, positive, and expansive at the second trial. One must experience a sense of uneasiness with any double jeopardy standard that would allow the State this second chance to plug up the holes in its case. The constitutional protection against double jeopardy is empty of meaning if the State may make "repeated attempts" to touch up its case by forcing the accused to "run the gauntlet" as many times as there are victims of a single episode.
See, e.g., Vaux's Case, 4 Co.Rep. 44a, 45a, 76 Eng.Rep. 992, 993 (K.B. 1591); 2 M. Hale, Pleas of the Crown **240-255 ("same felony"); 2 W. Hawkin, Pleas of the Crown 515 (8th ed. 1824); 4 W. Blackstone, Commentaries *335.
See generally J. Sigler, Double Jeopardy 1-37 (1969).
See Baker, The Prosecutor -- Initiation of Prosecution, 23 J.Crim.L. & C. 770 (1933); Baker & De Long, The Prosecuting Attorney -- Powers and Duties in Criminal Prosecution, 24 J.Crim.L. & C. 1025 (1934); Kaplan, The Prosecutorial Discretion -- A Comment, 60 Nw.U.L.Rev. 174 (1965); Note, Prosecutor's Discretion, 103 U.Pa.L.Rev. 1057 (1955); Note, Discretion Exercised by Montana County Attorneys in Criminal Prosecutions, 28 Mont.L.Rev. 41 (1966); Note, Prosecutorial Discretion in the Initiation of Criminal Complaints, 42 So.Cal.L.Rev. 519 (1969).
Several subsidiary rules have been developed in attempts to eliminate anomalies resulting from the "same evidence" test. Thus, where one offense is included in another, prosecution for one bars reprosecution for the other even though the evidence necessary to prove the two offenses is different. Similarly, doctrines of res judicata and collateral estoppel have provided some, though not very much, relief from the extreme permissiveness of the test. See generally Kirchheimer, The Act, The Offense and Double Jeopardy, 58 Yale L.J. 513 (1949). Numerous practical exceptions to the test are discussed in Horack, The Multiple Consequences of a Single Criminal Act, 21 Minn.L.Rev. 805 (1937). So many exceptions to the "same evidence" rule have been found necessary that it is hardly a rule at all; yet the numerous exceptions have not succeeded in wholly preventing prosecutorial abuse.
"Since the prohibition in the Constitution against double jeopardy is derived from history, its significance and scope must be determined, 'not simply by taking the words and a dictionary, but by considering [its] . . . origin and the line of [its] . . . growth.'"
Green v. United States, supra, at 355 U. S. 199 (dissenting opinion). The relation between the history of English criminal procedure and the history of the common law of double jeopardy is comprehensively examined in M. Friedland, Double Jeopardy (1989). See in particular pp. 161-194.
See, e.g., Fed.Rules Crim.Proc. 8, 13, 14; Ill.Rev.Stat., c. 38, § 3-3 (1967); Ann., 59 A.L.R.2d 841 (1958).
For example, where a crime is not completed or not discovered, despite diligence on the part of the police, until after the commencement of a prosecution for other crimes arising from the same transaction, an exception to the "same transaction" rule should be made to permit a separate prosecution. See, e.g., Diaz v. United States, 223 U. S. 442, 223 U. S. 448-449 (1912). Cf. ALI, Model Penal Code, Proposed Official Draft §§ 1.07(2), 1.09(1)(b) (1962); Connelly v. D.P.P.,  A.C. 1254, 1360. Another exception would be necessary if no single court had jurisdiction of all the alleged crimes. An additional exception is discussed in n. 11, infra.
Admittedly, the phrase "same transaction" is not self-defining. Guidance for its application can be obtained from cases interpreting the phrase as it is used in the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure. See in particular cases under Rule 8(a). Although analogies to the use of the phrase in civil litigation are not perfect, since policy considerations differ, some further guidance for its application in the present context can be obtained from the course of its application in civil litigation, where the courts have not encountered great difficulty in reaching sound results in particular cases. See 3 J. Moore, Federal Practice ¦ 13.13 (1968); 1A W. Barron & A. Holtzoff, Federal Practice and Procedure § 394 (Wright, ed.1960). Additional guidance may be found in cases developing the standard of "common nucleus of operative fact," United Mine Workers v. Gibbs, 383 U. S. 715, 383 U. S. 725 (1966), for purposes of pendent jurisdiction. See generally Note, UMW v. Gibbs and Pendent Jurisdiction, 81 Harv.L.Rev. 657, 660-662 (1968).
Compare ALI, Administration of the Criminal Law, Official Draft: Double Jeopardy § 5 (1935) with ALI, Model Penal Code, Proposed Official Draft §§ 1.07(2), 1.09(1)(b) (1962). See also Ill.Rev.Stat., c. 38, §§ 3-3, 3(b)(1) (1967).
See Connelly v. D.P.P.,  A.C. 1254.
Rule 14 provides for separate trials under court order where joinder would be prejudicial to either the prosecution or the defense. Cf. Fed.Rule Civ.Proc. 42. Even where separate trials are permitted to avoid prejudicial joinder, the "same transaction" rule can serve a useful purpose since the defendant is at least informed at one time of all the charges on which he will actually be tried, and can prepare his defense accordingly. Moreover the decision on whether charges are to be tried jointly or separately will rest with the judge, rather than the prosecutor. And separate trials may not be ordered, of course, where the proofs will be repetitious or the multiplicity of trials vexatious, or where the multiplicity will enable the prosecution to use the experience of the first trial to strengthen its case in a subsequent trial.
Joinder of defendants, as distinguished from joinder of offenses, requires separate analysis. For example, joinder of defendants can lead to Sixth Amendment problems. See, e.g., Bruton v. United States, 391 U. S. 123 (1968).
The question of separate trials for different crimes committed during a single criminal transaction is entirely distinct from and independent of the question of prosecutorial discretion to select the charges on which a defendant shall be prosecuted; and, as explained in my separate opinion in Abbate, supra, at 359 U. S. 198-199, it is also distinct from and independent of the question of the imposition of separate punishments for different crimes committed during a single transaction. The Double Jeopardy Clause does not limit the power of Congress and the States to split a single transaction into separate crimes so as to give the prosecution a choice of charges. Cf. Gore v. United States, 357 U. S. 386, 357 U. S. 395 (1958) (DOUGLAS, J., dissenting). Moreover, the clause does not, as a general matter, prohibit the imposition at one trial of cumulative penalties for different crimes committed during one transaction. See my separate opinion in Abbate, supra. Thus, no crime need go unpunished. However, the clause does provide an outer limit on the power of federal and state courts to impose cumulative punishments for a single criminal transaction. See Gore v. United States, supra, at 357 U. S. 397-398 (BRENNAN, J., dissenting).
principle beyond the bounds or needs of its rational and legitimate objectives to preclude harassment of an accused.
Certain facts are not in dispute. The home of John Gladson was the scene of "a friendly game of poker" in the early hours of the morning of January 10, 1960. Six men -- Gladson, Knight, Freeman, Goodwin, McLendon, and Roberts -- were playing cards in the basement. While the game was in progress, three men, armed with a sawed-off shotgun and pistols, broke into the house and forced their way into the basement. They ordered the players to remove their trousers and tied them up, except for Gladson, who had a heart condition of which the robbers seemed to be aware. Substantial amounts of currency and checks were taken from the poker table, and items of personal property were taken from the persons of the players. During the same period in which the men were being robbed in the basement, one man entered Mrs. Gladson's bedroom three floors above, ripped out the telephone there, tied her with the telephone cord, and removed the wedding ring from her finger. The robbers then fled in a car belonging to Roberts.
Four men -- Ashe, Johnson, Larson, and Brown -- were arrested later in the morning of the robbery. Each was subsequently charged in a separate information with the robbery of each of the six victims. Ashe, Johnson, and Larson were also charged with the theft of the car belonging to Roberts.
"Gladson testified that he saw four robbers, but could identify only one, a man named Brown. McClendon testified that he saw only three men at any one time during the course of the robbery, and he positively identified Brown, Larson, and Johnson; he also thought he heard petitioner's voice during the robbery, but said he was not sure. Knight thought only three men participated in the robbery, and he could not identify anyone. Roberts said he saw four different men, and he identified them as Brown, Larson, Johnson, and petitioner."
Ante at 397 U. S. 458.
Ashe put in no evidence whatever, as was his right, and even waived closing arguments to the jury; nonetheless, the jury did not reach a verdict of guilty, but returned a somewhat unorthodox verdict of "not guilty due to insufficient evidence."
Then, on June 20, 1960, Ashe was tried for the robbery of Roberts. Mrs. Gladson testified at this trial, relating that she was asleep in her bedroom when one of the robbers entered, awoke her, tied her up with a telephone cord, and took cash and her wedding ring. The robber stayed in her room for about 15 or 20 minutes, during which time she could hear scuffling and talking in the basement. She said that she was able to identify the robber by his voice, and that he was Johnson, not Ashe.
The Court's opinion omits some relevant facts. The other victims' testimony at the second trial corroborated that of Mrs. Gladson that four robbers were present during the time in which the robbery took place.
Gladson identified three robbers -- Brown, Larson, and Ashe -- as having been in the basement for the first minutes of the robbery; also he stated that one or more of the robbers had left the basement after 20 or 25 minutes. Roberts identified Brown, Larson, and Ashe as the men who formed the original group who entered the basement, and testified that, after the robbery, two of the three men, including Ashe, left the room. Two men returned in a short time with car keys, but Johnson had replaced Ashe as one of the two. There can be no doubt that the record shows four persons in the robbery band. The jury found Ashe guilty of robbing Roberts -- the only charge before it.
Thereafter, as described in the opinion of the majority, Ashe's conviction was reviewed and upheld by the Supreme Court of Missouri, the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri, and the Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit; in turn, each rejected Ashe's double jeopardy claim.
"the test to be applied to determine whether there are two offenses or only one, is whether each provision [i.e., each charge] requires proof of a fact which the other does not."
Clearly and beyond dispute, the charge against Ashe in the second trial required proof of a fact -- robbery of Roberts -- which the charge involving Knight did not. The Court, therefore, has had to reach out far beyond the accepted offense-defining rule to reach its decision in this case. What it has done is to superimpose on the same evidence test a new and novel collateral estoppel gloss.
The majority rests its holding in part on a series of cases beginning with United States v. Oppenheimer, 242 U. S. 85 (1916), which did not involve constitutional double jeopardy, but applied collateral estoppel as developed in civil litigation to federal criminal prosecutions as a matter of this Court's supervisory power over the federal court system. The Court now finds the federal collateral estoppel rule to be an "ingredient" of the Fifth Amendment guarantee against double jeopardy, and applies it to the States through the Fourteenth Amendment; this is an ingredient that eluded judges and justices for nearly two centuries.
Perhaps, then, it comes as no surprise to find that the only expressed rationale for the majority's decision is that Ashe has "run the gauntlet" once before. This is not a doctrine of the law or legal reasoning, but a colorful and graphic phrase which, as used originally in an opinion of the Court written by MR. JUSTICE BLACK, was intended to mean something entirely different. The full phrase is "run the gauntlet once on that charge . . ." (emphasis added); it is to be found in Green v. United States, 355 U. S. 184, 355 U. S. 190 (1957), where no question of multiple crimes against multiple victims was involved. Green, having been found guilty of second-degree murder on a charge of first degree, secured a new trial. This Court held nothing more than that Green, once put in jeopardy -- once having "run the gauntlet . . . on that charge" -- of first degree murder, could not be compelled to defend against that charge again on retrial.
Today's step in this area of constitutional law ought not be taken on no more basis than casual reliance on the "gantlet" phrase lifted out of the context in which it was originally used. This is decision by slogan.
"that the rule of collateral estoppel in criminal cases is not to be applied with the hypertechnical and archaic approach of a 19th century pleading book, but with realism and rationality."
Ante at 397 U. S. 444. With deference, I am bound to pose the question: what is reasonable and rational about holding that an acquittal of Ashe for robbing Knight bars a trial for robbing Roberts? To borrow a phrase from the Court's opinion, what could conceivably be more "hypertechnical and archaic," and more like the stilted formalisms of 17th and 18th century common law England, than to stretch jeopardy for robbing Knight into jeopardy for robbing Roberts?
the time. [Footnote 3/5] Also, since the second jury necessarily reached its decision by finding he was present, the collateral estoppel doctrine applies. But the majority's analysis of the facts completely disregards the confusion injected into the case by the robbery of Mrs. Gladson. To me, if we are to psychoanalyze the jury, the evidence adduced at the first trial could more reasonably be construed as indicating that Ashe had been at the Gladson home with the other three men, but was not one of those involved in the basement robbery. Certainly, the evidence at the first trial was equivocal as to whether there were three or four robbers, whether the man who robbed Mrs. Gladson was one of the three who robbed the six male victims, and whether a man other than the three had robbed Mrs. Gladson. Then, since the jury could have thought that the "acting together" instruction given by the trial court in both trials [Footnote 3/6] only applied to the actual taking from the six card players, and not to Mrs. Gladson, the jury could well have acquitted Ashe but yet believed that he was present in the Gladson home. On the other hand, the evidence adduced at the second trial resolved issues other than identity that may have troubled the first jury. If believed, that evidence indicated that a fourth robber, Johnson, not Ashe, was with Mrs. Gladson when Ashe, Larson, and Brown were robbing the male victims. Johnson did go to the basement where the male victims were located, but only after the other three had already taken the stolen items and when the robbers were preparing for their departure in a car to be stolen from Roberts.
"As long as the matter to be considered is debated in artificial terms, there is danger of being led by a technical definition to apply a certain name, and then to deduce consequences which have no relation to the grounds on which the name was applied. . . ."
the dignity of the human personality and individuality to talk of "a single transaction" in the context of six separate assaults on six individuals.
No court that elevates the individual rights and human dignity of the accused to a high place -- as we should -- ought to be so casual as to treat the victims as a single homogenized lump of human clay. I would grant the dignity of individual status to the victims as much as to those accused, not more, but surely no less.
If it be suggested that multiple crimes can be separately punished, but must be collectively tried, one can point to the firm trend in the law to allow severance of defendants and offenses into separate trials so as to avoid possible prejudice of one criminal act or of the conduct of one defendant to "spill over" on another.
What the Court holds today must be related to its impact on crimes more serious than ordinary housebreaking, followed by physical assault on six men and robbery of all of them. To understand its full impact. we must view the holding in the context of four men who break and enter, rob, and then kill six victims. The concurrence tells us that, unless all the crimes are joined in one trial, the alleged killers cannot be tried for more than one of the killings even if the evidence is that they personally killed two, three, or more of the victims. Or alter the crime to four men breaking into a college dormitory and assaulting six girls. What the Court is holding is, in effect, that the second and third and fourth criminal acts are "free" unless the accused is tried for the multiple crimes in a single trial -- something defendants frantically use every legal device to avoid, and often succeed in avoiding. This is the reality of what the Court holds today; it does not make good sense, and it cannot make good law.
"is in full accord with all the guarantees of the Federal Constitution, and . . . should not be held invalid by this Court because of a belief that the Court can improve on the Constitution."
If Knight and Roberts had been passengers in a car that collided with one driven by Ashe, no one would seriously suggest that a jury verdict for Ashe in an action by Knight against Ashe would bar an action by Roberts against Ashe. To present this situation shows how far the Court here has distorted collateral estoppel beyond its traditional boundaries.
See, e.g., Mayers & Yarbrough, Bis Vexari: New Trials and Successive Prosecutions, 74 Harv.L.Rev. 1, 29-41 (1960); Comment, 24 Mo.L.Rev. 513 (1959); cf. Note, 75 Yale L.J. 262, 283-292 (1965).
The weight of the harassment factor does not warrant elevating collateral estoppel principles in criminal trials to the level of an "ingredient" of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments. True harassment deserves serious consideration because of the strain of the new trial. But society has an urgent interest in protecting the public from criminal acts, and we ought not endorse any concepts that put a premium on aggravated criminal conduct in multiple crimes committed at the same time.
Arguably if Ashe had made a defense solely by alibi, that he was in Vietnam at the time and offered evidence of Army records, etc., one might reasonably say the jury decided what the Court today says it probably decided. On this record however, such an analysis is baseless.
See ante at 439 n. 3.
For a criticism of the collateral estoppel doctrine because of the "guesswork" necessary to apply it to general criminal verdict, see Note, 75 Yale L.J. 262, 285 (1965).
Hoffa v. New Jersey, 356 U. S. 464, 356 U. S. 473 (Warren, C.J., dissenting), 356 U. S. 477 (DOUGLAS, J., dissenting) (1958).

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