Lewis E. Terry v. Superintendent of Field Unit 9

Terry initially appealed to this Court after the Virginia District Court refused to grant habeas corpus relief. Among his grounds for relief, Terry complained that he had been improperly given a longer jail sentence after retrial for the same offenses. The second trial was conducted de novo in a separate state court system. No affirmative reasons were given for imposing an increased sentence.

We applied North Carolina v. Pearce, 395 U.S. 711, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 23 L.Ed.2d 656 (1969), holding that the sentence could not exceed that imposed at the first trial, 4 Cir., 454 F.2d 591.

The Supreme Court…