Jury verdict of acquittal = unassailable

On Mar 3, 7:34 am, b...@nyx.net (Barry Gold) wrote:
> Mike Jacobs <mjacobs...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >None of this changes the law that a jury's verdict of ACQUITTAL cannot
> >be challenged by the state on appeal, without unconstitutionally
> >violating the Double Jeopardy clause.   (The State CAN appeal an
> >acquittal if it was based on an error of _law_ committed by the trial
> >judge, but cannot challenge the jury's factual finding of guilty or
> >not guilty if there was no error in the judge's legal instructions or
> >in his decisions to admit or exclude some of the evidence).
>
> What?  I've never heard of that happening.  Once a jury is seated,
> jeopardy attaches and the defendant _cannot_ be retried if the jury
> brings in a Not Guilty verdict, regardless of errors by the trial
> judge.

Agreed, but maybe I wasn't clear enough in my use of language in the post Barry quotes.   Once the jury returns a verdict of acquittal, it is unassailable.  I was talking about errors of law made by the judge that resulted in an acquittal by the judge on a ruling of law _before_ the jury verdict comes in; such as an erroneous conclusion that a prior mistrial bars retrial under the double jeopardy clause.  (Some mistrials _are_ re-triable, others are not; hence, confusion and mistaken rulings can occur.)  Under proper circumstances, if the state _was_ in fact permitted to re-try defendant and the judge's ruling erroneously deprived it of that chance, those rulings can, and often are, appealed by the State to get another re-trial.

I don't think anyone on this forum disagrees that a jury verdict of acquittal, in USA courts, is the final word on the subject and bars any re-trial of the defendant on the same criminal charge -- even if the judge's mistakes of law favoring the defendant contributed to that verdict.

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