CHAPINOFF v. State

SCHWARTZ, Senior Judge.

Notwithstanding that the trial which resulted in the criminal convictions now on appeal may have been free of error, we must discharge the defendant because his rights against double jeopardy were violated in an earlier proceeding.

The trial below was the third in which the defendant faced the same charges. In each of the first two — after the jury had been selected, impaneled and sworn, and jeopardy had therefore attached — the trial judge felt it appropriate to grant a mistrial. In each case, this was essentially because of the highly unprofessional, mutually combative…