Opinion ID: 884487
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Propriety of Supervisory Control

Text: ¶ 5 Article VII, Section 2 of the Montana Constitution gives this Court original jurisdiction to issue, hear, and determine writs.... Supervisory control is appropriate when a district court is proceeding under a mistake of law and in so doing is causing a gross injustice for which an appeal is not an adequate remedy. State v. Mont. Judicial Dist. Court (1997), 281 Mont. 285, 290-91, 933 P.2d 829, 832-33 (citations omitted). It remains an extraordinary remedy, however, to be exercised only in extraordinary circumstances. State v. Dist. Court of Fourth Jud. Dist. (1996), 277 Mont. 349, 352, 922 P.2d 474, 476 (citations omitted). ¶ 6 Here, the issue of whether Booth can be prosecuted for two counts of negligent homicide implicates double jeopardy considerations. If the District Court's conclusion that the prosecution is not barred proved  on appealto be incorrect, Booth would have been subjected to prosecution notwithstanding his entitlement to avoid the prosecution altogether. Under such a circumstance, it is clear that appeal would not be an adequate remedy. See Keating v. Sherlock (1996), 278 Mont. 218, 224-25, 924 P.2d 1297, 1300-01. As a result, we determine that Booth's application presents legal issues which are appropriate for this Court to resolve through a writ of supervisory control.