Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

The Movie

Hi. I saw the movie fractured and was wondering about the legal logic of it.

Have you seen the movie? If you haven't, the basic legal issue involves this-a man is acquitted of the attempted murder of his wife for lack of evidence.

Later, in consultation with doctors, the man has his wife removed from life-support.

Around this time, the DA tells the man that after he had his wife removed from life support, they were able to find evidence to convict him of murder.

He is then brought before court. I'm not sure if it is for the original attempt at his wife's life, which he was acquitted of, or for turning off her life support. I assume it was for the former. Which sounds like double jeopardy to me.

What is your legal opinion on this, with regards to the possibilities-I mean being charged with murder based on the original case against him or for the turning off of the life support system?

Thankyou.

P.S. I am being forced to state what State my question relates too-I'm not sure of which State the movie is set in. MAYBE it's Californica, but I'm not sure.


Asked on 8/14/07, 5:50 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Edward Hoffman Law Offices of Edward A. Hoffman

Re: The Movie

I haven't seen the movie, so my answer is based solely upon what you have written.

Someone who has been acquitted of a particular crime cannot be charged with it again by the same government. By "particular crime" I mean more than just the violation of a given statute. I mean a *particular* violation of that statute. If A shoots B today and is acquitted of attempted murder but then shoots be again next year, he can be charged again because the charge would invlolve a different violation of the same law.

(A 1999 film called "Double Jeopardy" is notorious among lawyers because it gets this aspect of the law wrong. A lawyer played by Tommy Lee Jones says that a person who was wrongly convicted of murdering someonw who turned out to still be alive can get away with murdering him for real because of her prior conviction. Hopefully someone else in the film understod the law better than Jones' character!)

If the defendant in the film you saw wasn't actually acquitted, though, the charges could be re-filed until the statute of limitations ran out. Thus, if charges were merely dismissed the first time around, the defendant could be charged again.

Keep in mind also that double jeopardy applies only to repeated prosecutions by the same government. An acquittal on state charges does not bar a prosecution for federal crimes committed during the same act, and vice versa. This is why people acquitted of state-law murder charges are sometimes prosecuted again for civil rights violations or other federal offenses based upon the same conduct.

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Answered on 8/14/07, 1:42 pm


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