Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

You are a deputy district attorney? And you've never heard of double jeopardy?? I assume the case law is that you can't retry the special allegations. But I haven't researched the issue.

This is by far the stupidest thing I have ever read on Lawguru. If you are a deputy district attorney, and you are posting on Lawguru, then you must have slept with someone to get your job.

If you are defending yourself, or defending someone accused of special enhancement allegations, then why the hell are you challenging a jury ruling in your favor? Don't challenge the special allegations decision if you are the defendant, just the underlying charge.

I think Mr. Roach and Mr. Stone have misread the question. Its author seems to be a defendant who wants a retrial on the charge of which he was convicted and who wants to know whether, if he loses again, he can be hit with the same enhancements that failed the first time around. I believe the answer to that question is no, though I am not sure and I don't have time to research the issue.

Assuming I'm right, the reason is not because of double jeopardy as Mr. Stone suggests. A retrial would still be part of your first jeopardy rather than the start of a second. But there is a general rule that a criminal defendant should not have to risk a worse judgment in order to argue that he did not get a fair trial the first time around. That rule governs appeals; offhand I don't see why motions for a new trial should be treated any differently.