State Ex Rel. Johnson v. Hamilton

Neely, Chief Justice:

In the case of State ex rel. Dowdy v. Robinson, _ W.Va. _, 257 S.E.2d 167 (1979) we adopted “both the ‘same evidence’ test and the ‘same transaction’ test for determining whether the ‘same offense’ is involved for double jeopardy purposes with an accompanying rule that whichever test affords the defendant the greater protection against potential unconstitutional double jeopardy must be applied.” We explained the “same transaction” test by illustration and pointed out that if a defendant were arrested for both kidnapping and robbing a victim at the same time then, under…