People v. Fields

Opinion

LUCAS, J.*

We granted review to decide whether the constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy, or any of the statutory provisions implementing its protection, bar defendant’s retrial on a greater offense on which jurors failed to reach agreement when, in the same proceeding, the jury returned a verdict of guilty on a separately charged lesser included offense. In resolving this issue we are called upon to reconcile an apparent tension between two distinct and well-established double jeopardy doctrines: the “implied acquittal” doctrine, under which the jury’s verdict of guilty on…