United States First Circuit

The district court erred in granting petitioner a writ of habeas corpus barring prosecution for murder on double jeopardy grounds, where: 1) the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (SJC) previously reversed petitioner's conviction for being an accessory before the fact to the same murder; 2) defendant was then indicted for murder; 3) the SJC upheld the indictment, holding that its earlier reversal had been based on a variance between the crime charged and the crime proved at trial under state law, and a second prosecution following a reversal based on such a variance does not give rise to a double jeopardy problem; 4) this court is bound by the SJC's interpretation of its earlier reversal and the requirements of Massachusetts law, so petitioner's double jeopardy argument necessarily fails; and 5) petitioner's ex post facto claim is patently without merit.

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/23/2014
• Published 05/23/2014

Judges

• LYNCH

Court

• United States First Circuit

Counsel