United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Duncan v. Tennessee, 405 U.S. 127 (1972)

Duncan v. Tennessee

No. 70-5122.

Argued January 13, 1972

Decided February 23, 1972

405 U.S. 127

224 Tenn. 712, 462 S.W.2d 491, certiorari dismissed as improvidently granted.

PER CURIAM.

We granted certiorari in this case, 404 U.S. 821, to consider questions seemingly presented under the constitutional guarantee against double jeopardy. After briefing and oral argument, it now appears that those questions are so interrelated with rules of criminal pleading peculiar to the State of Tennessee, the constitutionality of which is not at issue, as not to warrant the exercise of the certiorari jurisdiction of this Court. See, e.g., Wilson v. State, 200 Tenn. 309, 292 S.W.2d 188 (1956); Young v. State, 185 Tenn. 596, 206 S.W.2d 805 (1947). See U.S.Sup.Ct.Rule 19(1)(a). The writ is, therefore, dismissed as having been improvidently granted.

MR. JUSTICE BRENNAN, with whom MR. JUSTICE DOUGLAS and MR. JUSTICE MARSHALL join, dissenting.

In dismissing the writ of certiorari in this case, the Court lets stand a conviction secured in violation of petitioner's right, under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, not to be placed in jeopardy twice for a single criminal offense. The infringement of this

Page 405 U. S. 128

fundamental right is so plain on the record before us that I am compelled to dissent.