The defendant himself described the events leading up to this appeal when he told the judge, “Sir, I don’t see how you’re going to go forward with this trial. It’s turmoil.” But there was more than just turmoil. With two troubled jurors wanting to be excused and no alternates to replace them, and with a problem defendant stirring the brew, there was “[d]ouble, double, toil and trouble.”* The pot began to simmer in jury selection and boiled over during the trial, after jeopardy had attached. The double trouble produced a mistrial over the defendant’s objection, raising the specter of double jeopardy.
* William Shakespeare, Macbeth, act 4, sc. 1.
The conclusion: "This case having strutted and fretted its hour upon the appellate stage, we conclude that the curtain should be dropped, at least on this Act of it."
In addition to the fun writing style of this opinion, I found it interesting that someone took the time to write "a.k.a. Rob" into the caption.
ReplyDeleteSomething's rotten in the state of Denmark.
ReplyDelete"The law is a ass." Carnes needs to stop waxing poetic and just get to the damn point. He has too much time on his hands, what with his senior status and all.
ReplyDelete