Opinion ID: 1924787
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: Alleged Violation of the Double Jeopardy Clause

Text: The defendant next contends that his convictions on both of the counts relating to the murder of the two young people (counts 8 and 9) and the two counts relating to the underlying felony of carjacking resulting in death (counts 6 and 7) violated the double jeopardy clause of the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution. He argues that, since (in his view) there was insufficient evidence for the jury to find premeditation upon which to base his first-degree murder conviction, that conviction must have been based upon the felony murder theory and that, therefore, he should not have been convicted of both felony murder and the underlying felony. We do not reach this argument because defendant has failed to properly preserve it for our review. As discussed in section I C, supra, absent a showing of good cause, a defendant is barred from raising the defense of double jeopardy if he or she did not file a Rule 12(b)(2) motion before trial. Feliciano, 901 A.2d at 647; Grayhurst, 852 A.2d at 500; Haney, 842 A.2d at 1084; McGuy, 841 A.2d at 1115. In the instant case, defendant did not raise the defense of double jeopardy before trial, and we perceive no good cause that would motivate us to allow him to raise this argument for the first time at the appellate level. In addition to the fact that defendant did not file a Rule 12(b)(2) motion raising his double jeopardy argument, it is noteworthy that defendant did not raise this issue at any time during the trial. Accordingly, this Court will not address this issue because it has not been properly preserved for appellate review.