United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Turner v. Arkansas, 407 U.S. 366 (1972)

Turner v. Arkansas

No. 71-1309

Decided June 19, 1972

407 U.S. 366

Syllabus

Petitioner received a general verdict of acquittal on an information charging him with murder in the course of a robbery. When petitioner was subsequently indicted for the robbery, his defense, rejected by the state courts, was that constitutional principles of double jeopardy collaterally estopped the State from relitigating those factual issues already determined in his favor, determinations that make his conviction of robbery logically impossible.

Held: It must be concluded that the jury (which had been given a charge on accessories) found that petitioner was not present at the robbery-murder scene, thus negating the possibility of a constitutionally valid conviction for the robbery. Ashe v. Swenson, 397 U. S. 436.

Petition for certiorari granted; 251 Ark. 499, 473 S.W.2d 904, reversed and remanded.