Christian v. Wellington, No. 12-3718 (6th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CaseYoungstown police attempted to pull over a stolen Cadillac believed to be involved in an earlier robbery. The driver attempted to flee and hit an unmarked police car that had its lights on as it drove toward the Cadillac. As the pursuit, which involved nine officers, continued, passengers in the Cadillac (driven by Christian) shot rifles at the pursuing police cars. Christian’s first state court trial ended in verdicts of not guilty on nine counts of felonious assault and in a hung jury on the remaining seven counts of complicity to felonious assault. The state sought to retry Christian on the seven complicity counts. Christian filed a habeas petition, claiming violation of the Double Jeopardy Clause. The district court denied the petition. The Sixth Circuit affirmed, stating that complicity to felonious assault and felonious assault are not the same crime and that no ultimate fact necessary for his conviction of complicity to felonious assault was determined by the jury at the first trial.
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