Cases of Interest to the School Community 2002–2003 Term

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Double Jeopardy

Sattazahn v. Pennsylvania, No. 01-7574

The question David Allen Sattazahn posed in Sattazahn v. Pennsylvania was whether the Due Process and Double Jeopardy Clauses are violated when a defendant's first-degree murder conviction and life sentence are reversed but the defendant is then convicted in a second trial and sentenced to death. In answering that question in the negative, Justice Scalia wrote for the Court that an "acquittal" at a trial-like sentencing phase, rather than the mere imposition of a life sentence, is required to give rise to double-jeopardy protections.

Read the opinion of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania affirming both the verdict of guilt, and the sentence of death on retrial.

Read the Supreme Court's transcript of the oral arguments.

Read the Supreme Court's opinion that there was no double-jeopardy bar to Pennsylvania's seeking the death penalty on retrial.

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