State Ex Rel. Kemper v. Vincent

MICHAEL A. WOLFF, Chief Justice.

Does the constitutional prohibition of double jeopardy bar a second trial after a court-declared mistrial in the first trial? The inquiry in this case centers on whether granting a mistrial was a “manifest necessity.”

The state introduced Sandra Kemper’s confessions to setting a fatal fire in her home. The confessions came after police told Kemper that she had failed a polygraph test. The trial court permitted Kemper’s defense to introduce the results of the polygraph that showed she did not fail it; some of the details of her confession were inconsistent with…