If a Defendant Is Acquitted and Convicted of Offenses Arising Out of the Same Conduct and the Judgments Are Declared Void, Can the State Retry the Defendant on the Acquitted Charge?

The Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment prohibits multiple prosecutions or punishments for the same offense. In this case, defendant Damian McElrath was found “not guilty by reason of insanity” on the malice murder charge for the intentional killing of his mother but was found “guilty but mentally ill” of aggravated battery and felony murder. The Georgia Supreme Court vacated the judgments on all charges, the acquittal and the two convictions, on the ground that the verdicts were so logically irreconcilable as to be “repugnant.” The prosecutor then brought all the charges again and the trial court rejected McElrath’s claim that retrial on the acquitted charge was barred by double jeopardy. The Georgia Supreme Court affirmed the trial court ruling and held that there was no bar to retrial on the malice murder charge. McElrath asks the U.S. Supreme Court to bar retrial on the malice murder charge because a properly constituted jury had previously found him not guilty of that offense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]