Russell Fenstermaker v. Kathy Halvorson

SMITH, Chief Judge.

Russell J. Fenstermaker was tried and convicted in Minnesota state court in January 2013. A couple of months earlier, a jury had been impaneled in the prosecution of the same charge against him, but the state trial court declared a mistrial before the trial actually began. The court found that a mistrial was a manifest necessity because an injury sustained by the prosecutor litigating the case appeared certain to delay the trial beyond the empaneled jury's term of service. Following his convictions, Fenstermaker appealed, challenging the trial court's denial of his motion…