United States v. Thomas Edward Sisk, Charles Benson, Jr., Charles Frederick "Fred" Taylor, and William Aubrey Thompson

JOHN W. PECK, Senior Circuit Judge.

This case comes before us as the last link in an improbable chain of events. Two questions are presented: first, whether there was “manifest necessity” for the district court’s sua sponte declaration of a mistrial, so that retrial of appellants was not barred by the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment; second, whether a government entity can be an “enterprise” within the scope of the “Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations” [“RICO”] chapter of the Organized Crime Control Act. 1 We hold that the facts of this case demonstrate the “manifest…