United States of America Ex Rel. John Clauser v. Stephen McCevers Warden, and Tyrone Fahner

731 F.2d 423, 1984 U.S. App. LEXIS 23797
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedApril 6, 1984
Docket83-1392
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 731 F.2d 423 (United States of America Ex Rel. John Clauser v. Stephen McCevers Warden, and Tyrone Fahner) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States of America Ex Rel. John Clauser v. Stephen McCevers Warden, and Tyrone Fahner, 731 F.2d 423, 1984 U.S. App. LEXIS 23797 (7th Cir. 1984).

Opinion

COFFEY, Circuit Judge.

The appellant, John Clauser, appeals the denial of his petition for a writ of habeas corpus pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2254. In essence Clauser alleges that his Fifth Amendment right to be free from double jeopardy was violated when his first trial was terminated as a result of a defective indictment (the defect being neither caused by the prosecutor nor within the scope of his knowledge) and he was subsequently reindicted and convicted of the offenses charged in the original indictment. 1 We affirm.

I.

The petitioner and a co-defendant were indicted for unlawful delivery of more than 30 grams of a controlled substance containing cocaine. It became apparent, during the first trial through the testimony of the state’s witnesses, that certain state law enforcement officers had misrepresented evidence to the grand jury that had indicted the petitioner. Clauser and his co-defendant, Arthur Jones, thereupon moved for judgment of acquittal. The trial court declined to grant their motion for acquittal, finding that the record contained sufficient other evidence to sustain a conviction. With regard to the conduct of the officers in question, the judge stated that he did not believe that they had intentionally lied to the grand jury, rather, he characterized their acts as being “grossly negligent,” or “grossly careless.” The court concluded, however, that the trial should be terminated as the indictment, based partly on misleading or false testimony, was invalid. In the trial court’s view, a conviction founded on this invalid indictment could not be upheld on appeal.

Following his reindictment, the petitioner moved for dismissal of this second indictment on double jeopardy grounds. The trial court denied Clauser’s motion for dismissal and upon retrial, he was convicted *425 of the offense originally charged, unlawful delivery of a controlled substance (cocaine), and sentenced to a term of imprisonment of six to eighteen years. The petitioner appealed his conviction to the Illinois Appellate Court on the ground that his reindictment, retrial and conviction violated double jeopardy. The state appellate court upheld his conviction finding the Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Scott, 437 U.S. 82, 98 S.Ct. 2187, 57 L.Ed.2d 65 (1978), to be controlling. People v. Clauser, 73 Ill. App.3d 145, 29 Ill.Dec. 368, 391 N.E.2d 793 (1979), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 908, 100 S.Ct. 1833, 64 L.Ed.2d 260 (1980).

Clauser then filed the instant petition for a writ of habeas corpus in the United States District Court for the Central District of Illinois, alleging that the state appellate court misapplied the Scott decision, and that his conviction violated both double jeopardy and due process. The district court, while finding the Scott decision inapplicable to the facts of this case, denied Clauser’s petition for a writ of habeas corpus. The court held that Clauser’s Fifth Amendment Double Jeopardy rights had not been violated as the state trial court’s decision to terminate his original trial was occasioned by “manifest necessity.” Clauser v. Shadid, 563 F.Supp. 392, 395 (C.D.Ill. 1983). 2

It is from the district court’s denial of a writ of habeas corpus that Clauser appeals.

II.

A. MANIFEST NECESSITY.

The Fifth Amendment Double Jeopardy Clause protects a criminal defendant from repeated prosecutions for the same offense. United States v. Dinitz, 424 U.S. 600, 606, 96 S.Ct. 1075, 1079, 47 L.Ed.2d 267 (1976).

“Underlying this constitutional safeguard is the belief that ‘the State with all its resources and power should not be allowed to make repeated attempts to convict an individual for an alleged offense, thereby subjecting him to embarrassment, expense and ordeal and compelling him to live in a continuing state of anxiety and insecurity, as well as enhancing the possibility that even though innocent he may be found guilty.’ ”

Id. (quoting Green v. United States, 355 U.S. 184, 187-88, 78 S.Ct. 221, 223-24, 2 L.Ed.2d 199 (1957)). The Double Jeopardy Clause also protects a criminal defendant’s “valued right to have his trial completed by a particular tribunal____” Wade v. Hunter, 336 U.S. 684, 689, 69 S.Ct. 834, 837, 93 L.Ed. 974 (1949). The protection afforded by the Double Jeopardy Clause, however, is not one which in all cases requires that the state vindicate its public interest in the enforcement of criminal laws in a single proceeding. United States v. Jorn, 400 U.S. 470, 483-84, 91 S.Ct. 547, 556-57, 27 L.Ed.2d 543 (1971) (plurality opinion). Assuming the defendant was not acquitted, if the government can establish that the termination of the defendant’s first trial was occasioned by “manifest necessity,” the Constitution’s double jeopardy prohibition does not provide the defendant with protection against retrial. See United States v. Perez, 9 Wheat. 579, 6 L.Ed. 165 (1824); Illinois v. Somerville, 410 U.S. 458, 461- *426 63, 93 S.Ct. 1066, 1069-70, 35 L.Ed.2d 425 (1973); and United States v. DiFrancesco, 449 U.S. 117, 130, 101 S.Ct. 426, 433, 66 L.Ed.2d 328 (1980). When the trial court’s decision to terminate the initial proceeding is occasioned by “manifest necessity,” the double jeopardy bar of retrial is removed in favor of the protection of “the public’s interest in fair trials designed to end in just judgments.” Wade, 336 U.S. at 689, 69 S.Ct. at 837.

The facts of this case are analogous to the granting of a mistrial, or the dismissal of an action without the defendant’s consent. In the present case the defendant did not move for mistrial, rather he moved for judgment of acquittal. As has already been indicated, the trial court denied the defendant’s motion for judgment of acquittal on the grounds that the prosecution had presented sufficient independent and untainted evidence to support a conviction on the offense charged. While the record does not reveal an objection on Clauser’s part to the court’s decision to dismiss the indictment (presumably without prejudice), it is apparent the trial was terminated as a result of the problem underlying that indictment and the decision to discontinue the trial was without Clauser’s affirmative consent.

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Bluebook (online)
731 F.2d 423, 1984 U.S. App. LEXIS 23797, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-of-america-ex-rel-john-clauser-v-stephen-mccevers-warden-ca7-1984.