UNITED STATES
v.
KOPP

U.S. | 1976-12-06
No. 75-1536
429 U.S. 121 Supreme Court of the United States (1976) Positive Treatment
Also reported at: 50 L. Ed. 2d 336 · 97 S. Ct. 400 · 1976 U.S. LEXIS 90 · SCDB 1976-018
Cited by 2 cases

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Synopsis

The Government appealed a district court's dismissal of a marijuana possession indictment after the defendant was found guilty in a bench trial, and the Court of Appeals barred the appeal on double jeopardy grounds. The Supreme Court held that double jeopardy does not prevent the Government from appealing a post-conviction dismissal when the appeal seeks to reinstate a guilty verdict, regardless of whether the verdict came from a jury or a bench trial.

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Per_curiam
Per Curiam.

Per Curiam.

The operative facts herein are substantially identical to those in United States v. Morrison, ante, p. 1, and United States v. Rose, ante, p. 5. Respondent’s car was stopped by Border Patrol agents; a search disclosed marihuana. Respondent lost a motion to suppress and was found guilty after a bench trial. Following this trial, but before sentencing, the District Court, relying upon our decision in Almeida-Sanchez v. United States, 413 U. S. 266 (1973), dismissed the indictment. The Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, as it did in Morrison and Rose, found the Government’s appeal barred by double jeopardy.

In United States v. Wilson, 420 U. S. 332 (1975), we held that double jeopardy would not bar a Government appeal if success on that appeal would result in the reinstatement of a verdict of guilty. The fact that the dismissal of the indictment here occurred after a general finding of guilt rendered-by the court in a bench trial, rather than after a return of a verdict of guilty by a jury, is immaterial. Morrison, supra. Double jeopardy therefore does not bar an appeal by the Government.

We grant the petition for certiorari, vacate the judgment of the Court of Appeals, and remand to that court for proceedings consistent herewith.

Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus

Citator

Cited By

  • United States v. Scott, 437 U.S. 82 (U.S. 1978)
    …of guilt or innocence, and then ruled on the motion to suppress; a reversal of these rulings would require no further proceedings in the District Court, but merely a reinstatement of the finding of guilt.” Id., at 271. Accord, United States v. Kopp, 429 U. S. 121 (1976); United States v. Rose, 429 U. S. 5 (1976); United States v. Morrison, 429 U. S. 1 (1976). We, of course, do not suggest that a midtrial dismissal of a prosecution, in response to a defense motion on grounds unrelated to guilt or innocence,…

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