STATE EX REL. GODFREY v. Rowe

The petitioner, in this prohibition action, seeks relief from this Court to prohibit the trial court from retrying the petitioner on a charge of sexual assault-third degree, after his first trial ended in a mistrial. The petitioner claims that to allow a second trial to proceed would place the petitioner in double jeopardy for the sexual assault-third degree offense in violation of the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article III, Section 14, of the West Virginia Constitution. The petitioner also contends that the trial court abused its discretion when it ordered that…