Commonwealth v. Petteway

¶ 1 The issue we address, inter alia, is whether a criminal defendant’s double jeopardy rights are violated when the trial judge instructs the jury to reconsider its verdict on all charges after the jury announces in open court that it has found the defendant not guilty of one of the charges and guilty of the others. We find that with respect to the. charge for which the jury reached a not guilty verdict, the defendant’s double jeopardy rights were violated. As a result, we vacate and remand with instructions.

¶ 2 In late 2000 and early 2001, Wilkes-Barre Police were engaged in a drug…