Court Opinion

ID: 9845897
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:30:37.98068+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:16:25.157422
License: Public Domain

POFF, J.,
concurring.
I concur fully in the judgment and in the rationale of the Court’s opinion. I would like to add, however, that the defendant’s claim of double jeopardy would not lie even if jeopardy had attached at the aborted trial.
When an accused seeks and obtains the termination of a trial on a ground unrelated to a determination of guilt or innocence, the prohibition against double jeopardy generally does not prevent a retrial. This principle was established recently in United States v. Scott, 437 U.S. 82 (1978). There, the United States Supreme Court held that the Double Jeopardy Clause does not bar the government’s appeal from a ruling granting a defendant’s motion, made at the conclusion of the evidence, to dismiss for prejudicial pretrial delay. In so doing, the Court expressly overruled United States v. Jenkins, 420 U.S. 358 (1975), which had held that “regardless of the character of the midtrial termination, appeal was barred if ‘further proceedings of some sort, devoted to the resolution of factual issues going to elements of the offense charged, would have been required upon reversal and remand.’ ” 437 U.S. at 94. The Scott decision authorized retrial upon remand. Thus, the Double Jeopardy Clause does not bar retrial of a defendant who has been granted a termination before a determination of guilt or innocence, at least where the accused’s request was not necessitated by judicial or prosecutorial “bad faith conduct”, United States v. Dinitz, 424 U.S. 600, 611 (1976).
Aside from the fact defendant assumed inconsistent positions in the two proceedings in the circuit court (a fact that hardly weighs in his favor), the essential facts in the case at bar are legally indistinguishable from those in Scott. Upon the defendant’s request, indictments were dismissed without any determination of guilt or innocence. Therefore, “the Double Jeopardy Clause, which guards against Government oppression, does not relieve defendant from the consequences of his voluntary choice.” Scott, 437 U.S. at 99.