# Can a person be tried multiple times based on one incident? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 20, 2005, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-person-be-tried-multiple-times-based-on-one-incident/336381 "2005-12-20T01:00:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-person-be-tried-multiple-times-based-on-one-incident/336381/1 "2005-12-20T01:00:00Z")
Let’s say someone wearing a mask holds up a bank, in the process killing a bank guard, holding someone hostage, shooting and wounding a teller, etc. They get away. Weeks later a chain of circumstantial evidence leads the police to a suspect, but without a positive ID possible by anyone at the bank, so the case is shaky. Can the D.A. try the suspect for the murder of the guard, then if the jury declares him Not Guilty, indict him for taking a hostage and try him for that? Then if he’s found Not Guilty again, Assault and Battery on the teller; then Armed Robbery, etc. etc. for as many felonies as can be applied to the original action, hoping to eventually luck out with the right jury? Or can the defense insist that all charges relating to a single incident be put on the table at once, and the suspect convicted or cleared in one go? ---
**Author:** ![OldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/3bc359/32.png) [@OldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OldGuy)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-person-be-tried-multiple-times-based-on-one-incident/336381/2 "2005-12-20T01:23:18Z")
People certainly have been tried separately in state and federal courts for the same incident. I’m not sure about multiple times in one jurisdiction, though. As a related matter. What if you were tried and acquitted (or convicted) of the robbery during which someone died but before the shooting victim died (I realize that this is unikely to happen due to the amount of time involved). Could you later be tried for murder? What if your accomplice was mortally wounded by a guard and died before you were tried, but this was unknown at the time of your trial. Could you later be tried for felony murder. ---
**Author:** ![DarrenS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DarrenS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DarrenS)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-person-be-tried-multiple-times-based-on-one-incident/336381/3 "2005-12-20T01:45:56Z")
I wonder if double jeopardy applies in cases where it’s the same incident, but different (although closely related) crimes? Article on DJ: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double\_Jeopardy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Jeopardy) ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Cad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saint_cad/32/18907_2.png) [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-person-be-tried-multiple-times-based-on-one-incident/336381/4 "2005-12-20T02:54:09Z")
I often wonder about this when two someone shoots someone else (one crime) and there are multiple charges such as homicide, conspiracy to commit homicide, illegal discharge of a firearm, littering, etc. ---
**Author:** ![yBeayf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/e274bd/32.png) [@yBeayf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yBeayf)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-person-be-tried-multiple-times-based-on-one-incident/336381/5 "2005-12-20T03:31:31Z")
This has actually been discussed before on this board. [This thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=211820) should prove enlightening. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-person-be-tried-multiple-times-based-on-one-incident/336381/6 "2005-12-20T03:42:35Z")
> [@DarrenS](#): > > I wonder if double jeopardy applies in cases where it’s the same incident, but different (although closely related) crimes? A very brief reading of a couple of cases indicates to me that the answer is yes, DJ applies in such cases. From Blockburger v US 284 US 299, 304 (1932): > [@SCOTUS](#): > > The applicable rule is that where the same act or transaction constitutes a violation of two distinct statutory provisions, the test to be applied to determine whether there are two offenses or only one, is whether each provision requires proof of a fact which the other does not. From Grady v Corbin 499 US 508 (1990): > [@SCOTUS](#): > > The Double Jeopardy Clause bars a subsequent prosecution if, to establish an essential element of an offense charged in that prosecution, the government will prove conduct that constitutes an offense for which the defendant has already been prosecuted. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-person-be-tried-multiple-times-based-on-one-incident/336381/7 "2005-12-20T03:58:10Z")
> [@yBeayf](#): > > This has actually been discussed before on this board. [This thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=211820) should prove enlightening. Oh my fucking god. I remember that nightmare of a train wreck. Not at all helpful in trying to answer this OP in any sort of succint fashion but if one was around at the time a warm ‘n’ fuzzy reminder both of one of the more (can one insult banned posters in GQ? better not I guess just in case) _colorful_ posters and of some fine people who don’t come around here no more. ---
**Author:** ![Gfactor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@Gfactor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gfactor)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2005, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-a-person-be-tried-multiple-times-based-on-one-incident/336381/8 "2005-12-20T05:12:10Z")
One problem that the prosecutor will encounter in a situation like the one described is collateral estoppel. In [Ashe v. Swenson](http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=us&vol=397&invol=436), the Court faced a case of sequential prosecutions. Three or four masked men robbed six poker players. The petitioner was tried for robbing one of the players and was acquitted. He was then tried for robbing another of the poker players. The Court said that because there was no doubt that a robbery had occured, the prior acquittal could only have been based on the jury’s conclusion that there was insufficient evidence that the defendant was one of the robbers. The prior acquittal prevented a subsequent prosecution for an offense committed at the same time and place. That means that if it appears that the first acquittal is based on an alibi defense or an (express or implied) claim that the defendant was not at the scene of the crime, a subsequent prosecution will be barred.