Butler v. State

*246CHASANOW, Judge.

We granted Michael Butler’s petition for a writ of certiorari to decide whether the doctrine of collateral estoppel bars the State from retrying Butler for various counts on which the jury deadlocked at his former trial. Butler contends that, by finding him guilty of being an accessory after the fact in that trial, the jury determined that he was not a principal in the offenses on which the jury was unable to reach a verdict. For the reasons discussed below, we hold that collateral estoppel does not preclude the retrial.

I

On August 12,1989, the Howard County police responded to…