Does double jeorpary and collateral estoppel apply where defendant fled by vehicle?
Full Question:
Answer:
Please see the following article from http://www.icje.org/id148.htm:
Dual Sovereignty Doctrine - Two State Governments
(Georgia Gave Him Life/Alabama Gave Him Death)
It is legally permissible for two states to prosecute the same defendant for the same offense?
Consider a 1985 Supreme Court case: Heath v. Alabama, 106 S. Ct. 433, 1985.
The defendant, Larry Gene Heath, was convicted of having hired Charles Owens and Gregory Lumpkin to kill his wife, Rebecca McGuire Heath, for $2,000. Mr. Heath left his residence in Alabama to meet Mr. Owens and Mr. Lumpkin in Georgia, just across the Alabama state line. Mr. Heath led the two men back to his residence in Alabama, gave them the keys to his car and left in his girlfriend's pickup truck. The car belonging to the Heaths was later found on the side of a road in Troup County, Georgia. Mrs. Heath's body was inside. The cause of death was a gunshot wound to the head.
Mr. Heath pleaded guilty to “malice murder” in Georgia in exchange for a sentence of life imprisonment. Later, he was prosecuted in an Alabama court for murder during a kidnapping. Mr. Heath received a death sentence from the Alabama court. Mr. Heath appealed, but the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals and the Supreme Court of Alabama affirmed the conviction. Mr. Heath then appealed to the United States Supreme Court, arguing that his conviction in Georgia barred his prosecution in Alabama for the same conduct. The United States Supreme Court held that successive prosecutions by two states for the same conduct were not barred by the double jeopardy clause. “In applying the dual sovereignty doctrine, then, the crucial determination is whether the two entities that seek successfully to prosecute a defendant for the same course of conduct can be termed separate sovereigns. This determination turns on whether the two entities draw their authority to punish the offender from distinct sources of power...The States are no less sovereign with respect to each other than they are with respect to the Federal Government. Their powers to undertake criminal prosecutions derive from separate and independent sources of power and authority originally belonging to them before admission to the Union and preserved to them by the Tenth Amendment.” (Heath v. Alabama, 106 S. Ct. 433, 437-438)
Conclusion
The same defendant may be tried, in some cases, by more than one government without violating double jeopardy. Each state government is considered to be a separate government. The federal government is a government separate from state governments. The material in the Lanza case relates to the laws of a state and the federal government concerning prohibition, but it also raises the constitutional issue of double jeopardy. The material in the Heath case relates to the laws of two different states, Georgia and Alabama, but it too raises the constitutional issue of double jeopardy. The United States Supreme Court has held that two separate states may convict a person for the same offense without violating double jeopardy. The United States Supreme Court has held that the federal government and a state government may convict a person for the same offense without violating double jeopardy.
