Legal News

High Court Debates Double Jeopardy; Welcomes SG Kagan

By Ashby Jones

Have federal prosecutors had enough of a chance to convict former Enron vice president Scott Yeager (pictured)?

That was the issue getting argued in Washington yesterday at the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices were asked to weigh whether retrying Yeager on dozens of counts would violate the constitutional ban on double jeopardy. After a 13-week trial in 2005, a federal jury deadlocked on a host of insider-trading and money-laundering charges. Yeager was acquitted of conspiracy, securities-fraud and wire-fraud charges. Click here for the Houston Chronicle article; here for all the background on the case, from ScotusWiki.

For all you civil-procedure junkies, the specific issue invoked was collateral estoppel: in this case, whether the charges upon which Yeager was acquitted so overlapped with the charges upon which the jury deadlocked that the government should be “estopped” from retrying the case on the deadlocked charges.

For some justices, the answer was a clear “yes.” “I can't think of any reason for allowing the government a second bite at this apple,” said Justice Breyer. Justices Stevens and Souter also reportedly made remarks, voicing hesitation at the government’s arguments.

Souter noted that allowing a second trial in Yeager's case could encourage prosecutors to indict defendants on scores of overlapping charges in the hope they could retry any counts that are not decided by a jury initially.

"If the government can bring loads of counts" and get a hung jury on some of them, "the government has a key" to keep a case alive, Souter said.

Still, Deputy Solicitor General Michael Dreeben persisted. “The government should have one full and fair opportunity to convict a defendant," Dreeben said. "That does not occur when the hung counts prevent" a full verdict on some charges.

Also on Monday, according to Scotusblog, the new Solicitor General, Elena Kagan, was introduced to the Court to begin her service as the government's top advocate before the Justices. Chief Justice Roberts welcomed her in a brief exchange and noted "a job well done" by Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler, who has served as Acting Solicitor General since Jan. 20.

Photo: AP

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on March 24, 2009 (boomark / email).