Posts Tagged ‘double jeopardy’

Judge Belvin Perry says issue of whether Casey Anthony must return to serve a year of probation on her check fraud case is “a mess”

“If anything could go wrong, it went wrong here.”  That is what Judge Belvin Perry said after hearing over an hour of arguments from both prosecution and defense attorneys.  Judge Perry ended the hearing without a ruling.  The Judge said he needed more time to decide whether or not Casey Anthony must return to serve 1 year of probation on her check fraud case.  He did not say when he expected to have a ruling.

At the hearing, defense attorneys argued that Anthony had already served her term of probation while she was incarcerated.  Therefore, if she were required to serve probation now, it would constitute double jeopardy.  The defense further argued that any amendment to Anthony’s sentence must have been done within 60 days of her original sentence back in January of 2010 and that the court now lacked jurisdiction to go back and change or modify the order.

Department of Corrections officials explained that they believed the sentence required Anthony to serve the probation while she was in jail awaiting her murder trial and that she had, in fact, completed her probation.

The prosecution argued that the failure by the Trial Judge to put the words, “upon release” was a scrivener‘s error and therefore could be amended by the Judge without causing double jeopardy.

Judge Perry called the case, “a legal morass” and “a mess.”  To be continued…

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Judge declares mistrial in Roger Clemens perjury and obstuction trial

On only the second day of testimony, Clemens’ perjury and obstruction trial has ended after Judge Reggie Walton was left with no other choice than to grant a mistrial.  The mistrial was prompted by the prosecution’s showing of a video that showed former teammate Andy Pettitte declaring that he had told his wife about Clemens’ drug use.  The testimony regarding Pettitte’s wife had been ruled as inadmissible hearsay in pretrial motions before the court.

After declaring a mistrial, the Judge stated, “Mr. Clemens has to get a fair trial… in my view, he can’t get it now.”  The Judge came down hard on the prosecutors and said that a “first-year law student” would have known better than to present such evidence.

A hearing has been scheduled September 2 to determine whether or not to have a new trial.  At that hearing, Judge Walton could possibly finish the prosecution’s case by declaring that a new trial would be double jeopardy.

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