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Published by the Indiana Office of Court Services

Evans v. Michigan, No. 11-1327, __ U.S. __ (Feb. 20, 2013).

February 22, 2013 Filed Under: Criminal Tagged With: S. Sotomayor, SCOTUS

Sotomayor, J.
When the State of Michigan rested its case at petitioner Lamar Evans’ arson trial, the court entered a directed verdict of acquittal, based upon its view that the State had not provided sufficient evidence of a particular element of the offense. It turns out that the unproven “element”was not actually a required element at all. We must decide whether an erroneous acquittal such as this nevertheless constitutes an acquittal for double jeopardy purposes, which would mean that Evans could not be retried. This Court has previously held that a judicial acquittal premised upon a “misconstruction” of a criminal statute is an “acquittal on the merits . . . [that] bars retrial.” Arizona v. Rumsey, 467 U. S. 203, 211 (1984). Seeing no meaningful constitutional distinction between a trial court’s “misconstruction” of a statute and its erroneous addition of a statutory element, we hold that a midtrial acquittal in these circumstances is an acquittal for double jeopardy purposes as well.
ROBERTS, C. J., and SCALIA, KENNEDY, THOMAS, GINSBURG, BREYER, and KAGAN, JJ., joined. ALITO, J., filed a dissenting opinion.

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