Legal Features
The Rutherford Institute’s amicus brief in Gamble v. United States
In an effort to reform the nation’s harsh and overly-punitive criminal justice system, The Rutherford Institute has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to fully enforce the Constitution’s ban on double jeopardy by overruling precedent allowing a single act by a person to be the basis for successive prosecutions by the states and the federal government, even if the person is found not guilty in the first trial. Weighing in on Gamble v. United States, Institute attorneys have asked the Court to overturn prior rulings that the “separate sovereigns” doctrine, which allows successive prosecutions by a state and the federal government, takes precedence over the Fifth Amendment’s Double Jeopardy Clause.
“Despite the clear mandate of the Constitution against double jeopardy, we live in a country where a person can be tried for a crime a second time even after having being acquitted by a jury for that same crime,” said constitutional attorney John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute and author of Battlefield America: The War on the American People. “The time is long overdue for the courts to abolish the ‘separate sovereigns’ doctrine and protect the fundamental right to be free from multiple prosecutions for the same offense.”
September 13, 2018 • Rutherford Institute Calls on Supreme Court to Uphold Ban on Double Jeopardy, Protect Citizens From Successive Prosecutions by Fed and State
