U.S. Supreme Court
Supreme Court Weighs Collateral Estoppel and an Enron Executive’s Retrial
Posted Mar 24, 2009, 10:18 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
The U.S. Supreme Court considered yesterday whether former Enron executive F. Scott Yeager can avoid a retrial on some counts that produced a jury deadlock after his acquittal on other related charges.
Lawyer Samuel Buffone argued that Yeager’s acquittal on charges of wire and securities fraud resolved the common elements in the deadlocked counts, Law.com reports.
"When a jury's acquittal resolves an issue in a defendant's favor, that determination is final and the government may not seek an inconsistent determination of that issue from a second jury," Buffone said.
Several justices noted that the government had charged Yeager with 176 counts of criminal wrongdoing. Justice David H. Souter said there are lots of overlapping criminal statutes, and an indictment with lots of charges with common elements "gives the government a bigger chance of getting a hung jury or some irrational resolution on some of those issues."