In jurisprudence, double jeopardy is a procedural defence that prevents an accused person from being tried again on the same charges following an acquittal or conviction and in rare cases prosecutorial and/or judge misconduct in the same jurisdiction. Double jeopardy is a common concept in criminal law – in civil law, a similar concept is that of res judicata. The double jeopardy protection in criminal prosecutions bars only an identical prosecution for the same offence except when the defendant is a servicemember as the courts have ruled that the military courts are a separate sovereign therefore servicemembers can be held in two separate trials for the exact same charges; however, a different offence may be charged on identical evidence at a second trial. Res judicata protection is stronger – it precludes any causes of action or claims that arise from a previously litigated subject matter.
A jury is a sworn body of people (jurors) convened to hear evidence, make findings of fact, and render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Most trial juries are "petit juries", and usually consist of twelve people. A larger jury known as a grand jury has been used to investigate potential crimes and render indictments against suspects.
Jury nullification, also known in the United Kingdom as jury equity, or a perverse verdict, is when the jury in a criminal trial gives a verdict of not guilty even though they think a defendant has broken the law. The jury's reasons may include the belief that the law itself is unjust, that the prosecutor has misapplied the law in the defendant's case, that the punishment for breaking the law is too harsh, or general frustrations with the criminal justice system. Some juries have also refused to convict due to their own prejudices in favor of the defendant. Such verdicts are possible because a jury has an absolute right to return any verdict it chooses. Nullification is not an official part of criminal procedure, but is the logical consequence of two rules governing the systems in which it exists:
- Jurors cannot be punished for passing an incorrect verdict.
- In many jurisdictions, a defendant who is acquitted cannot be tried a second time for the same offense.
Laci Denise Peterson was an American woman murdered by her husband, Scott Lee Peterson, while eight months pregnant with their first child.
A hung jury, also called a deadlocked jury, is a judicial jury that cannot agree upon a verdict after extended deliberation and is unable to reach the required unanimity or supermajority. A hung jury may result in the case being tried again.
In France, a cour d'assises, or Court of Assizes or Assize Court, is a criminal trial court with original and appellate limited jurisdiction to hear cases involving defendants accused of felonies, meaning crimes as defined in French law. It is the only French court that uses a jury trial.
Ronell Earl Wilson is an American murderer who was convicted of the 2003 capital murder of two undercover New York City police officers in Staten Island, New York. His trial before Judge Nicholas Garaufis of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York began on November 27, 2006. On December 20, 2006, he was found guilty of the capital murders as well as other related charges. On January 30, 2007, Wilson was sentenced to death, the first such sentence by a federal jury in New York since the federal death penalty was reinstated in 1988.
William Henry Hance was an American serial killer and soldier who is believed to have murdered four women and molested three in and around military bases before his arrest in 1978. He was convicted of murdering three of them, and not brought to trial on the fourth. He was executed by the state of Georgia in the electric chair.
Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Florida.
Curtis Giovanni Flowers is an American man who was tried for the same murders six times by the same prosecutor in the U.S. state of Mississippi. Four of the trials resulted in convictions, all of which were overturned on appeal. Flowers was alleged to have committed the July 16, 1996, shooting deaths of four people inside Tardy Furniture store in Winona, seat of Montgomery County. Flowers was first convicted in 1997; in five of the six trials, the prosecutor, Montgomery County District Attorney Doug Evans, sought the death penalty against Flowers. As a result, Flowers was held on death row at the Parchman division of Mississippi State Penitentiary for over 20 years.
Wainwright vs. Witt, 469 U.S. 412 (1985), was a U.S. Supreme Court case concerning a criminal defendant, Johnny Paul Witt, who argued that his Sixth and Fourteenth Amendment rights were violated when he was sentenced to death for first degree murder by the state of Florida. He argued that the trial court had unconstitutionally hand-picked a jury during the voir dire process. This was because certain people were excused from the jury because they admitted pre-trial, that their decision of guilty or not guilty toward capital punishment would be swayed due to personal or religious beliefs.
Travis Victor Alexander was an American salesman who was murdered by his ex-girlfriend, Jodi Ann Arias, in his house in Mesa, Arizona while in the shower. Arias was convicted of first-degree murder on May 8, 2013, and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole on April 13, 2015.
On November 23, 2012, Jordan Davis, a black American 17-year-old boy, was murdered at a Gate Petroleum gas station in Jacksonville, Florida, United States, by Michael David Dunn, a white 45-year-old software developer, following an argument over loud music played by Davis and his three friends, in what was believed to be a racially motivated shooting.
Corey Miller, better known by his stage name C-Murder, is an American rapper. He initially gained fame in the mid-1990s as a part of his brother Master P's label No Limit Records, primarily as a member of the label's supergroup, TRU. Miller went on to release several solo albums of his own through the label, including 1998's platinum Life or Death. C-Murder has released nine albums altogether on six different labels, No Limit Records, TRU Records, Koch Records, Asylum Records, RBC Records, and Venti Uno.
On the morning of February 3, 2003, American actress Lana Clarkson was found dead inside the Pyrenees Castle, the Alhambra, California, mansion of record producer Phil Spector. In the early hours of that morning, Clarkson had met Spector while working at the House of Blues in Los Angeles.
John Michael Phillips is an American lawyer, consumer and civil rights advocate, and legal commentator. He is licensed to practice law in Florida, New York, Georgia, Alabama, Texas, Oklahoma, Illinois and Washington, DC. Phillips has been lead counsel in numerous nationally reported cases. He successfully represented U.S. Congresswoman Lucy McBath and Ron Davis after the shooting of Jordan Davis in Jacksonville, Florida. He prevailed as lead counsel for Omarosa Manigault Newman in litigation filed against her by Donald J. Trump for President, Inc. As a result, the Campaign was assessed Phillips’s legal fees and costs, totaling over $1.3 Million and agreed to invalidate all of the Campaign's NDAs. He also is lead counsel for Joseph Maldonado-Passage, also known as Joe Exotic, and is featured in four episodes of the second season of the Netflix show Tiger King.
Blueford v. Arkansas, 566 U.S. 599 (2012), was a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States that clarified the limits of the Double Jeopardy Clause. The Supreme Court held that the Double Jeopardy Clause does not bar retrial of counts that a jury had previously unanimously voted to acquit on, when a mistrial is declared after the jury deadlocked on a lesser included offense.
Jamell Maurice Demons, known professionally as YNW Melly, is an American rapper and singer. He rose to fame in 2018 following the release of his single "Murder on My Mind," a trap song that explores homicidal ideation. As his mainstream breakthrough, its release garnered him further attention after he was charged with the double-murder of two fellow rappers in the "YNW" collective the following year, resulting in an ongoing legal battle and incarceration. Prior, "Murder on My Mind" peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Hot 100 and led him to sign with 300 Entertainment to issue the song as a single for his debut commercial mixtape I Am You (2018), which was met with positive critical reception along with its follow-up, We All Shine (2019).
Billy Kipkorir Chemirmir was a Kenyan living in the United States permanently with a green card, who was a convicted murderer and suspected serial killer accused of the murders of elderly women in Dallas, Texas, United States, and its surrounding suburbs. Chemirmir was indicted for 22 murders and convicted of two. Civil suits were also filed accusing him of two other similar murders. In September 2023, Chemirmir was killed in prison.
Toforest Onesha Johnson is an American man on death row for the 1995 execution-style murder of Jefferson County deputy sheriff William Hardy in Alabama. Johnson was one of four men accused of shooting Hardy to death on July 19, 1995, near a hotel where Hardy worked as a security officer while off duty. Out of the four suspects, only Johnson and his friend Ardragus Ford were subsequently put on trial, and after a mistrial in 1997, Johnson was found guilty and sentenced to death in 1998, while Ford was acquitted during a re-trial.
