Can You Be Prosecuted Twice for Murdering the Same Person

[muellakos]

My question involves criminal law for the state of: -----any USA state on which it may occur

Hi, in the event of a criminal convicted for murdering someone, and after this individual who is innocent has serve the full prision sentence for this crime , lets say that is found that the suposed victim is alive.

would he be prosecuted again if he commits the crime for whom he was condemned?

what would happen to him if he commits the crime??

would he just get away with it if he already paid for the crime?? if so, can you tell me one state on which this would occur?

thanks in advance for any answer, it just came out on a legal argument and we are not sure on what would happen.

Thanks..

[BOR]

My question involves criminal law for the state of: -----any USA state on which it may occur

Hi, in the event of a criminal convicted for murdering someone, and after this individual who is innocent has serve the full prision sentence for this crime , lets say that is found that the suposed victim is alive.

would he be prosecuted again if he commits the crime for whom he was condemned?

what would happen to him if he commits the crime??

Very RARELY have I even heard of a murder case being tried without the body. Unless there was direct evidence, eyewitness, etc., murder trials are tried on indirect evidence, that is, circumstantial evidence.

would he just get away with it if he already paid for the crime?? if so, can you tell me one state on which this would occur?

If he served time on a conviction, especially a murder with no body, and the victim was found alive, a Wrongful Imprisonment suit is in order. If he murdered the person after they were found alive, his past imprisonment is NOT Constitutionally material.

The U.S. state is of no relevance, no state would forbid a successive prosecution of that sort.

[Dogmatique]

Thomas Capano. Tried and convicted without a body, now sitting on death row.

Yes, they're rare. But since I read the thread and am familiar with it personally, figured I'd post it

[cbg]

I've read about that case....

[BOR]

Thomas Capano. Tried and convicted without a body, now sitting on death row.

Yes, they're rare. But since I read the thread and am familiar with it personally, figured I'd post it

Thanks for the info. According to this though his brother said he had told him he had murdered someone. Although this is not the eyewitness testimony I was talking about, as in actually seeing it committed.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_J._Capano

What I meant was, actually, where say a person is missing, suspected of being kidnapped, and they make a murder case out of it, somehow, no witnesses at all.

Say a Jeffrey Dahmer type is charged. A person is missing, was seen though last in Dahmers apt. DNA can not 100% ID him as that missing person, no body if you will, just bone fragments.

[Dogmatique]

I've read about that case....

Yep yep yep!

Gotta love Delaware justice

Seriously : A "friend" of mine's ex-husband's sister - and yes I'm being perfectly serious LOL - worked on Death Row as a nurse on weekends for awhile (and made awesome money, incidentally - four 24-hour shifts/month = $58k!!!!! but that's beside the point) and had to deal with Capano. Oddly, though really very quiet he was one of her least cooperative inmates.

She would tell some stories...phew!


Sorry BOR - didn't see your post! Yes, his brother was the prosecution's entire case, really. It was quite the trial, though!

[aaron]

Wasn't this a movie?

In real life, I would expect the initial conviction - for the murder that did not occur - to be set aside and the defendant to be tried for the actual murder.

[crimprof]

Yes you could be prosecuted again; that wouldn't not be double jeopardy, just as you could rob a bank twice or assault someone twice. Just because a person was wrong fully convicted does not give them a get out of jail card. Outside of homicide the DA's office might pass on the double prosecution if it were minor crime.

[Who'sThatGuy]

But why would anyone want to kill the person that the state thought was dead. I would want to kill the prosecutor.