United States v. Pacheco

SELYA, Circuit Judge.

This criminal appeal arises in an unorthodox procedural posture. The district court, after granting a midtrial “partial directed verdict” on a single-count indictment, sent the case to the jury. Once a guilty verdict had been returned, the court entered a judgment of conviction and vacated the partial directed verdict. The defendant objects to this sequence of events on both double jeopardy and due process grounds. Although we reject the defendant’s double jeopardy claim, we nonetheless hold that his right to a fair trial was compromised. Accordingly, we vacate the…