Tulsa Oklahoma Double Jeopardy Lawyers

Does My Case Qualify for Oklahoma  Double Jeopardy Dismissal?

In the popular 1999 crime thriller Double Jeopardy starring Tommy Lee Jones and Ashley Judd, Ashley Judd and her husband are a wealthy, successful couple with a son. In order to avoid debts and looming bankruptcy, her husband purchases a life insurance policy with a very hefty payout and names their son as the beneficiary. Her husband then fakes his own death and frames Ashley Judd for murder. Ashley Judd is convicted of murder and sentenced to prison. When she is released, she finds out that her husband is alive, has the son, and used his fake death to collect the life insurance proceeds through their son. Ashley Judd then resolves to hunt down her husband, reclaim her son, and kill her husband. Because Ashley Judd was already convicted of her husband’s murder, she believes that the doctrine of double jeopardy will allow her to kill her husband without consequences because she cannot be prosecuted for the same crime twice.

Is this correct? And what exactly is the doctrine of Oklahoma double jeopardy?

The double jeopardy doctrine is found in the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. It states that no person “shall . . . be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb.” The double jeopardy doctrine prevents:

1. Prosecution for the same crime after an acquittal


2. Prosecution for the same crime after a conviction


3. Multiple punishments for the same crime

Oklahoma Double jeopardy only applies to criminal proceedings prosecuted by the same prosecuting authority. Thus you can be prosecuted for the same crime by Oklahoma state police and the federal Department of Justice.

Jeopardy must attach for your rights to be protected. Oklahoma double Jeopardy attaches in a bench trial before a judge when the judge begins to hear evidence and in a jury trial when the jury is sworn in. Thus if you show up on the day of trial and the Oklahoma prosecutor’s key witness does not appear to testify against you, your case will likely be dismissed for want of prosecution. However, the prosecutor may rebring the charges against you and attempt to prosecute you a second time without violating the double jeopardy clause.

If Ashley Judd was charged with murdering her husband, then acquitted, the prosecutor could not rebring the case and try the case again in hopes of attaining a conviction. The acquittal is final. However, the prosecutor may bring another case with different charges if these charges do not constitute the “same offense.” In evaluating whether the defendant is being retried for the “same offense,” Okalahoma courts utilize the Blockburger test. Offenses are separate under the Blockburger test when each offense includes at least one element that is not included in the other. Many offenses have lesser included offenses. For instance, felony murder is the killing of another during the commission of a felony such as robbery. If a defendant is convicted of felony murder, he cannot be subsequently tried for robbery because felony murder contains all elements of robbery.

However, under the Blockburger test, a second trial may be permitted regarding crimes that happened during the same incident as long as they are not the same offense. For instance, if a defendant was screaming on a residential street in the middle of the night, he could be arrested for disturbing the peace under Oklahoma Statute Title 21, Section 1362. The officers will conduct a search incident to arrest, and if they find cocaine in the defendant’s pockets, the defendant can also be charged with possession of cocaine. The prosecutor may decide to have two separate cases and two separate trials for these two charges even though they both stem from the same incident.

So would Ashley Judd be legally allowed to kill her husband a year later if she has already been convicted of his murder? Ashley Judd would likely not be permitted to do this under the Blockburger test. The circumstances surrounding the faked death would be entirely different from the circumstances surrounding the premeditated murder of her husband. While the offense charged (first degree murder) and victim (her husband) would be the same, the facts surrounding the murder would be different. Thus double jeopardy would not protect Ashley Judd. Rather, she should have sought to overturn her conviction using evidence that her husband framed her, then encouraged the government to prosecute her husband.

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Tulsa Oklahoma Double Jeopardy Lawyers

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