State v. Johnson

In this interlocutory transfer without ruling, the Superior Court (McHugh, J.) transferred, pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 9, the following question of law: Does the doctrine of collateral estoppel allow the State to introduce a specific finding of fact, made by a jury in a prior criminal trial against the defendant, as a conclusive fact which cannot be relitigated by the defendant in a subsequent perjury prosecution? For the following reasons, we hold that collateral estoppel is inapplicable in this case.

We take the facts as they are presented to us in the interlocutory transfer. On December…