Coleman v. Neal

Government did not violate Double Jeopardy Clause of 5^th Amendment, when it tried defendant for second time on attempted-murder charge, under circumstances where defendant was acquitted in first trial of murder charge, but jury could not reach unanimous verdict on instant attempted murder charge that arose during same encounter as murder charge. Instant encounter was captured on video, which indicated that defendant had shot attempted-murder victim twice and then shot murder victim. While defendant at first trial used successful self-defense claim in murder charge, jury could have readily found that defendant had no justification for shooting attempted murder victim. Moreover, Ct. rejected defendant's claim that first jury's finding that he had acted in self-defense in killing one victim necessarily applied to his encounter with attempted-murder victim, so as to prevent instant re-trial on attempted murder charge. Also, under Currier, 138 S.Ct. 2144, courts are to read acquittals for least that they establish, as opposed to most that they might represent. Too, defendant's trial counsel was not ineffective for failing to vigorously impeach at second trial testimony of attempted-murder victim, where differences in his testimonies were only subtle, and where any failure to impeach said witness was not prejudicial where actual encounter was captured on video.