The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday blocked Georgia's attempt to again prosecute a man who was acquitted for one charge in the murder of his adoptive mother despite conflicting verdicts on other charges, finding that "an acquittal is an acquittal" regardless of a simultaneous guilty verdict for the same offense.
In McElrath v. Georgia, a unanimous decision authored by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the high court sided with Damian McElrath who killed his mother and was subsequently found not guilty by reason of insanity of malice-murder, as well as guilty but mentally ill on charges of felony murder and aggravated assault.
The Georgia Supreme Court ruled that wasn’t “legally possible,” threw out the verdicts, and ordered a new trial.
"McElrath now maintains that the Fifth Amendment's double jeopardy clause prevents the state from retrying him for the crime that had resulted in the 'not guilty by reason of insanity' finding. Under the circumstances presented here, we agree," the Supreme Court said, rejecting the Georgia Supreme Court's conclusion that a new trial was needed because the split verdicts were "repugnant."
“Once there has been an acquittal, our cases prohibit any speculation about the reasons for a jury’s verdict—even when there are specific jury findings that provide a factual basis for such speculation—'because it is impossible for a court to be certain about the ground for the verdict without improperly delving into the jurors’ deliberations,’” the court wrote.