The issue-preclusion component of the Double Jeopardy Clause does not bar the Government from retrying defendants after a jury has returned irreconcilably inconsistent verdicts of conviction and acquittal and the convictions are later vacated for legal error unrelated to the inconsistency. (a) Because petitioners’ trial yielded incompatible jury verdicts, petitioners cannot establish that the jury […]
Issue Preclusion & Inconsistent Verdicts: Part 1
On November 29, 2016, Justice Ginsburg wrote for a unanimous United State Supreme Court in the case of Juan bravo-Fernandez and Hector Martinez-Maldonado v. the United States. A jury convicted Bravo and Martínez of bribery (18 U.S.C. 666), simultaneously acquitting them of conspiring to and traveling in interstate commerce to violate section 666. The only […]