Rendon-Alvarez v. Commonwealth

Jose Luis Rendon-Alvarez (defendant) seeks to preclude his retrial on a charge of trafficking in cocaine claiming a violation of double jeopardy principles.1 After his conviction by a jury on a theory of joint venture, the conviction was reversed by the Appeals Court on a ground other than the sufficiency of the evidence, see Commonwealth v. Rendon-Alvarez, *4148 Mass. App. Ct. 140, 141 (1999).2 On remand, the defendant moved to dismiss the indictment. He claimed that there was insufficient evidence of joint venture and that he had not been found guilty under an individual liability theory; thus,…