State v. Aillon

438 A.2d 30, 182 Conn. 124, 1980 Conn. LEXIS 971
CourtSupreme Court of Connecticut
DecidedAugust 12, 1980
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 438 A.2d 30 (State v. Aillon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Connecticut primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Aillon, 438 A.2d 30, 182 Conn. 124, 1980 Conn. LEXIS 971 (Colo. 1980).

Opinion

Cotter, C. J.

This appeal raises the issue whether the double jeopardy clause of the United States constitution prohibits a third trial of a defendant who successfully petitioned for a new trial after his first trial, which resulted in a conviction, and whose second trial terminated in a mistrial when the jury could not agree on a verdict.

The defendant was arrested and charged with three counts of murder alleged to have occurred in August, 1972. On September 1,1973, after a trial to a jury, he was found guilty of murder on all three counts.

The accused after a conviction filed a petition for a new trial, which the trial court granted after a hearing on his petition. The state appealed from that order granting the accused a new trial and this court ordered a new evidentiary hearing which concerned a two-minute conversation between the presiding judge and a juror as to the continuance of deliberations after 10 p.m. Aillon v. State, 168 Conn. 541, 544, 363 A.2d 49 (1975). After the *126 second hearing on the propriety of this brief conversation at which the jnror but not the judge testified, the trial court denied the new trial petition. The defendant appealed from that denial and this court reversed, concluding that the state failed to overcome the presumption of prejudice since the juror’s testimony was not rebutted, and ordered a new trial. Aillon v. State, 173 Conn. 334, 377 A.2d 1087 (1977). The second full trial concluded on March 11, 1979, when the jury were discharged because they were unable to reach a verdict.

When a mistrial was declared after his second trial, the defendant moved for entry of a judgment of acquittal on three grounds: (1) double jeopardy; (2) Practice Book, 1978, §§889 and 898; and (3) judicial discretion. Upon the trial court’s (Quinn, J.) denial of the defendant’s motion, the defendant appealed to this court. The state moved to dismiss the appeal and we granted this motion except as to the defendant’s double jeopardy claim on the ground that no final judgment had been entered in the cases appealed. 1 Thus, the sole matter now before us is the defendant’s contention that the state cannot proceed with a third trial because such a trial would violate the federal constitutional guarantee against placing a criminal defendant twice in jeopardy for the same offense. 2

The argument underlying the defendant’s claim is essentially two-pronged. In seeming recognition *127 of the principle that when a mistrial is declared at the defendant’s request or with his consent, the double jeopardy clause does not bar subsequent retrial; see, e.g., United States v. Dinitz, 424 U.S. 600, 608, 96 S. Ct. 1075, 47 L. Ed. 2d 267; United States v. Jorn, 400 U.S. 470, 484, 91 S. Ct. 547, 27 L. Ed. 2d 543; United States v. Tateo, 377 U.S. 463, 467, 84 S. Ct. 1587, 12 L. Ed. 2d 448; see also United States v. Gordy, 526 F.2d 631, 635 n.1 (5th Cir.); United States v. Goldstein, 479 F.2d 1061, 1066 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 414 U.S. 873, 94 S. Ct. 151, 38 L. Ed. 2d 113; the defendant contends, as a threshold matter, that his actions at the time the trial court declared a mistrial are not a bar to a consideration of his double jeopardy claim. Secondly, the defendant seeks, by arguing for a characterization of his situation as presenting a case where two juries have failed to agree on a verdict, to have this court deem reprosecution barred by the double jeopardy clause. We cannot agree with either of the defendant’s arguments, both of which would have the effect of circumventing settled analysis and doctrine under the double jeopardy clause. The novelty of the defendant’s claim in this jurisdiction, however, necessitates our discussion of his two-pronged argument.

The double jeopardy clause of the fifth amendment serves to safeguard defendants in criminal proceedings against multiple punishments or repeated prosecutions for the same offense. United States v. Dinitz, supra, 606. This constitutional *128 protection, however, does not guarantee a defendant that the government will be prepared, in all circumstances, to vindicate society’s interest in law enforcement by a single proceeding for a given offense. United States v. Jorn, supra, 483-84. 3 To compel the government to do so “would create an insuperable obstacle to the administration of justice in many cases in whieh there is no semblance of the type of oppressive practices at which the double-jeopardy prohibition is aimed.” Wade v. Hunter, 336 U.S. 684, 688-89, 69 S. Ct. 834, 93 L. Ed. 974. Thus, a defendant’s double jeopardy interests, which include his. right to have his criminal trial completed by a particular tribunal, must in some instances be subordinated to society’s interest “in fair trials designed to end in just judgments.” Id., 689.

Where a mistrial has been declared, Mr. Justice Story’s 1824 opinion in United States v. Perez, 22 U.S. (9 Wheat.) 579, 6 L. Ed. 165, has provided the guiding principles for determining when trials should be discontinued. In that seminal case, the court held that the question of whether under the double jeopardy clause there can be a new trial after a mistrial depends on whether “there is manifest necessity for the [mistrial], or the ends of *129 public justice would otherwise be defeated.” Id., 580. See, e.g., United States v. Dinitz, supra, 606-607; Illinois v. Somerville, 410 U.S. 458, 461, 93 S. Ct. 1066, 35 L. Ed. 2d 425; Gori v. United States, 367 U.S. 364, 368-69, 81 S. Ct. 1523, 6 L. Ed. 2d 901; Simmons v. United States, 142 U.S. 148, 153-54, 12 S. Ct. 171, 35 L. Ed. 968.

However, as Perez and its progeny, e.g., United States v. Dinitz, supra, 608, and United States v. Jorn, supra, 484, make clear, when a defendant consents to a declaration of a mistrial, no finding of manifest necessity for the declaration need be made.

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Bluebook (online)
438 A.2d 30, 182 Conn. 124, 1980 Conn. LEXIS 971, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-aillon-conn-1980.