Benton v. Maryland
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Benton v. Maryland, 395 U.S. 784 (1969), was a decision issued by the United States Supreme Court in 1969 concerning double jeopardy.
John Dalmer Benton was tried on charges of larceny and burglary. He was acquitted of larceny but found guilty on the burglary count. As a result, Benton was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Shortly after Benton's conviction, the Maryland Court of Appeals ruled, in Schowgurow v. State, that the portion of the Maryland Constitution which had required all jurors to swear their belief in the existence of God was itself unconstitutional. Since the jurors in Benton's case had been selected under the unconstitutional provision, he was given the option of demanding a new trial. Benton did in fact choose to undergo a new trial, but at the second trial, the state again charged Benton with larceny in spite of the fact that he had been acquitted of larceny in the first trial. The second trial concluded with Benton being found guilty on both burglary and larceny.
The Supreme Court ruled that the second trial did indeed constitute double jeopardy, and, as such, overturned the larceny conviction. Justice Thurgood Marshall, writing for the majority, wrote:
It is clear that petitioner's larceny conviction cannot stand once federal double jeopardy standards are applied. Petitioner was acquitted of larceny in his first trial. Because he decided to appeal his burglary conviction, he is forced to suffer retrial on the larceny count as well. As this Court held in Green v. United States ... "[c]onditioning an appeal of one offense on a coerced surrender of a valid plea of former jeopardy on another offense exacts a forfeiture in plain conflict with the constitutional bar against double jeopardy."
