How does double jeopardy work? People can get away with killing innocent people?

Question

Say friend1 wanted to put friend2 in jail and he got friend3 to tell the police that friend2 killed friend1. Friend2 went to jail then friend1 went into hiding somewhere. He served his time and got out. Could he go out and kill friend1 without getting in trouble?

Answer 1

Double jeopardy means that you cannot be convicted of the same crime twice.  As for the scenario you got me.

Answer 2

no, he could not double jeopardy is being charged with the same crime twice (however you can be charged civilly and criminally and it is not considered double jeopardy.) the friend would have to be tried and convicted then sentenced (now a days there are so many ways to prove guilty and not guilty through forensics) and then if he were to get out and kill then he could be charged again. also the other friends would be charged because of their involvement.

Answer 3

No - because once it was established that Friend One never died (and how innocent was he anyway?), the 1st conviction would have to be vacated.  2 could then be tried for the actual murder of number 1, although I suspect that it would be practically (not legally) impossible for the same prosecutor to try the same person for murdering the same victim under completely different circumstances; and given the time that 2 would have spent in jail, I would predict a really generous plea offer.

Answer 4

Yes, theoretically he could.  Double jeopardy means you can't be charged twice for the same crime.  Although that doesn't make much sense to me, because what if someone was arrested for robbing a bank, and then when he got out of jail he robbed it again?  He would get arrested right?  Hmm, yeah, I don't really get it either.  Guess I wasn't much help there, sorry!

Answer 5

No, double jeopardy does not work that way.  Double Jeopardy applies to the SAME crime.  The first murder of friend 1 by friend 2 is one crime, and the second murder of friend 1 by friend 2 is a totally different crime.  Additionally case law supports a second trial and conviction.

In Aleman v. The Judges of the Circuit Court et al, the Court ruled that the original trial was fraudulent.  In this case the defendant bribed the judge and won an acquittal.  The Court ruled that the defendant could be retried since the original trial was a fraud.

http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/ge...

Same thing would apply in your scenario.  The original trial was fraudulent, no crime occurred and the conviction was obtained on perjured testimony.  Friend 2 would end up getting really screwed as he will have served 20-25 years for the first murder and then another 20-25 years for the second.