Farmer v. McDaniel, No. 10-99017 (9th Cir. 2012)
Annotate this CaseDefendant was sentenced to death in Nevada in 1984 after a three-judge post-conviction sentencing panel found the existence of two statutory aggravating circumstances. However, defendant's death sentence was vacated in 2007 after the Nevada Supreme Court held that it was unconstitutional to use as an aggravating circumstance the fact that a murder was committed in the course of committing another felony or felonies. Nevada subsequently sought to reimpose the death penalty on defendant, using a different statutory aggravating circumstance. Defendant contended that to impose the death penalty a second time, albeit based on aggravating circumstances different than those used in the first trial, violated his right under the Fifth Amendment's Double Jeopardy Clause. The court held that defendant's double jeopardy rights would not be violated by the state again seeking a death sentence based on aggravating circumstances different from those found and used by the sentencer to impose the first death penalty sentence. Accordingly, the court affirmed the district court's denial of defendant's habeas petition.
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on September 5, 2012.
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