State v. Cruz

The opinion of the Court was delivered by

STEIN, J.

In this capital murder prosecution that was tried to a jury from January 17 to March 6, 2001, the trial court declared a mistrial because the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict on any count. After the Law Division denied defendant’s post-trial motion to dismiss the capital murder count, we granted defendant’s motion for leave to appeal that denial. Accordingly, the critical issue before us is whether principles of double jeopardy or fundamental fairness preclude retrial of a charge of capital murder if the first trial jury is unable…