Double Jeopardy

Scott Hardie | July 6, 2017
I have heard that law students will quiz each other with absurd or extreme hypothetical cases, just to see how they'd approach a difficult case. One occurred to me today and I wonder what you all might do.

You are a criminal defense attorney. Your client was been convicted of murder and sentenced to die by electric chair. (That method isn't really used any more, but let's say it is.) All appeals were exhausted. The night of the execution came. The guards strapped him in. They flipped the switch. His heart stopped. The doctor examined him and pronounced him dead. Ten minutes later, as the guards were removing the straps, his heart spontaneously started beating again. (It's rare but does happen.) Due to a chair malfunction, they could not re-execute him that night. He was put back in his cell.

Could/would you argue that because he already died, the sentence has been carried out? Or is there another way that you could/would approach this?

Aaron Shurtleff | July 7, 2017
Sometimes, when I see questions like this, and I think about how I would deal with it, I can almost tell that my opinion is going to be in the vast minority. But, in the pursuit of discussion, I will try!

To me, you would have to answer this question the same way you would if the client was sentenced to jail, and then a freak power outage caused his cell door to be unlocked and he escaped. If he was recaptured, would you argue that since he was jailed (even though now he's not), he's already served his sentence? Of course you wouldn't. The sentence has not been carried out, so he has to return to jail. Same thing here, I would say. If he's sentenced to die, and he's not dead, he hasn't served his sentence. I know it sounds callous, and I swear I'm really not heartless, but that's how I see it.

Scott Hardie | July 8, 2017
Agreed; a sentence of "death" is the same as a sentence of "10 years" or a sentence of "the rest of his life." Getting out of the punishment early on a technicality does not negate the sentence; the convict is still obligated to serve it. If I were the judge, I'd almost certainly rule that he has to be re-executed. But I'd sure love to hear a good argument that he doesn't, maybe even one that frames his spontaneous autoresuscitation as an unrelated "act of God."