William K. Haney v. Buford R. Burgess, Sheriff Morgan County, Alabama and Charles A. Graddick, Attorney General for the State of Alabama

This appeal raises the question of whether it violates the double jeopardy clause to retry a defendant whose criminal conviction was reversed because of improper venue. We hold that reversal because of improper venue is not the same as reversal for insufficient evidence to support a conviction, which would bar a retrial, and that retrial is permitted here. We therefore affirm the district court’s denial of a writ of habeas corpus to this state petitioner.

William Haney, a psychiatrist practicing in Morgan County, Alabama, was convicted in Montgomery County Circuit Court of multiple counts of…