Nonetheless, in the United States today, it is generally permitted. It is questionable whether or not retrial after a hung jury is Constitutional. Findlater, Retrial after a Hung Jury: The Double Jeopardy Problem, 129 U. Although recently acknowledging the likely inaccuracy of that view, the Court treated the matter as one “of academic interest only.” In so doing, it simply compounded error. The Court, however, has repeatedly read Perez as if it had established the standard for resolving the extent of the defendant’s double jeopardy protection following a mistrial. In doing so, it created an issue that did not obtain when Perez was decided: the effect of the double jeopardy clause on the retrial of cases that abort before verdict. Since Perez, however, the Supreme Court has held that jeopardy attaches before a verdict is rendered-specifically when the jury is impaneled and sworn. At that time, the Court adhered to the English common law view that jeopardy does not attach until a verdict is rendered.īut that is no longer the Court’s view.
In 1824, the hung jury question did not implicate the double jeopardy clause of the fifth amendment. This failure to refer to the Constitution was not inadvertent. However, this ruling was not made on Constitutional grounds.Īccording to law professor Janet Findlater,Īlthough the question in Perez was indeed whether a defendant could be retried following a hung jury, nowhere in the unanimous opinion authored by Justice Story, is either double jeopardy or the fifth amendment mentioned. Perez, Supreme Court precedent has held that retrial in the event of a mistrial is permissible. When there is a mistrial, however, the case may be retried. An acquittal results from a not guilty verdict and cannot be appealed by the prosecution, overturned by the judge, or retried. In the event of a mistrial, the defendant is not convicted, but neither is the defendant acquitted.
#Acquittal vs not guilty trial
(Mistrials can happen for other reasons, so when a trial ends in a mistrial, it is not necessarily due to a hung jury.) If a verdict still cannot be delivered, at some point the judge will declare a mistrial due to the hung jury. This direction is most commonly known as an Allen charge. The judge may direct them to deliberate further, usually no more than once or twice. A criminal law attorney can explain the process and possible liabilities the defendant may face in a civil trial related to the crime.When there are insufficient jurors voting one way or the other to deliver either a guilty or not guilty verdict, the jury is known as a “hung jury” or it might be said that jurors are “deadlocked”. A defendant who’s acquitted in a criminal trial should be prepared for the possibility of a civil trial. There is a lower standard of proof in civil cases than in criminal cases. Multiple punishments for the same offenseĪn acquittal or not guilty verdict in a criminal trial can still result in a civil trial where monetary damages may be awarded to the victim of the crime.Double convictions for the same offense after acquittal.Prosecution for the same offense after acquittal.The United States Constitution’s Fifth Amendment contains a double jeopardy clause that prohibits the following: The government loses power to prosecute a defendant twice for the same offense. If a person is acquitted, he/she can’t be prosecuted for the same crime again under double jeopardy.
The defendant may found guilty and convicted of rape, but acquitted on domestic violence charges. For instance, if the defendant is charged with both rape and domestic violence, there may be enough evidence to support one charge but not the other. In some criminal cases, a defendant may be partially acquitted of a crime charged against him/her. These subtle differences in the law can be confusing to a defendant without a criminal law attorney to explain what these legal terms mean, and what the verdict means to the defendant moving forward.
If a defendant is found “not guilty,” it means that he/she is found not legally answerable for the criminal charges filed against him/her. If a defendant is “acquitted,” it means that he/she is found not guilty by a judge or jury of the crime charged. There is a subtle difference between an acquittal and a not guilty verdict.
If the defendant is acquitted of a crime, it only means that the prosecutor in the case failed to prove the defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt according to the law. Under criminal law, an acquittal is a general term for a “not guilty” verdict, but it doesn’t mean the defendant is innocent of the crime. Understanding Acquittal Under Criminal Law Acquittal in a criminal case does not mean a defendant is innocent of the crime, only that the prosecutor failed to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.