Opinion ID: 751631
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: issues

Text: 30 Relying on United States v. Oppenheimer, 242 U.S. 85, 37 S.Ct. 68, 61 L.Ed. 161 (1916) appellant argues that res judicata bars the prosecution ... of Paradise after the initial charges against him were dismissed. Appellant's Brief at 33. In Oppenheimer, the defendant moved to quash an indictment against him on the grounds that a former indictment for the same offense had been determined to be barred by a statue of limitations. In a later unrelated case, that determination was held to be erroneous. The government then sought to recharge the defendant with the identical crimes that had originally been dismissed. Without expressly invoking any constitutional basis, Justice Holmes held that res judicata should be applied to bar this second prosecution for the same offense in order to comply with what in the civil law is a fundamental principle of justice. Oppenheimer, 242 U.S. at 88, 37 S.Ct. at 69. 31 There can be no double jeopardy issue, where, as here, the initial prosecution was decided on a pretrial motion. See United States v. Martin Linen Supply Co., 430 U.S. 564, 97 S.Ct. 1349, 51 L.Ed.2d 642 (1977). Nevertheless, relying on this court's recognition of due process overtones in Justice Holmes' Oppenheimer opinion, see United States ex rel DiGiangiemo v. Regan, 528 F.2d 1262, 1266 (2d Cir.1975), Paradise contends that the due process clause requires that we apply res judicata to nullify his conviction. 32 Paradise's arguments on this point are somewhat unclear. We will presume that in seeking res judicata, Paradise seeks issue preclusion. We do not accept Paradise's suggestion that there can be no distinction between the issue preclusion and claim preclusion elements of res judicata in the circumstances of this case. That suggestion is predicated on Paradise's self-serving assumption that the issue determined in Paradise I was that of guilt or innocence. It was not. 33 It is true that in DiGiangiemo, Judge Friendly stated that due process could--without the aid of the double jeopardy clause--require a state to apply issue preclusion in favor of a criminal defendant. 528 F.2d at 1265. Appellant in DiGiangiemo sought to suppress certain evidence on the ground that its introduction was barred by a prior proceeding at which he had successfully moved to suppress other evidence obtained through the same illegal search. Although he rejected appellant's contention for other reasons, see 528 F.2d at 1267-70, Judge Friendly suggested that due process provides at least some issue preclusion protection in criminal cases: 34 Assuming that the state has had an opportunity for a full hearing on suppression and at least one appeal as of right, we think due process would forbid relitigation of the issue determined adversely to it, although not, of course, the prosecution ... on the basis of other evidence. 35 Id. at 1266. 36 Applying DiGiangiemo and Oppenheimer to this case, we hold that due process would of course have prohibited the state from attempting to relitigate the issue of whether the original charges of murder, felony murder and kidnapping were time-barred. However, the state did not seek to relitigate the statute of limitations issue. Instead, in Paradise III the state had its first opportunity to litigate the issue of Paradise's guilt for or innocence of the murder of Jay Cunningham. There can be no issue preclusion in this case.