The Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment Precludes Retrial After a Reviewing Court Has Found the Evidence Legally Insufficient to Support a Guilty Verdict

Examines the first two of the five companion cases decided by the United States Supreme Court, Burks v. United States and Greene v. Massey. In Burk, the Court held that the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Constitution precluded the defendants from being tried again “when the reviewing court found the evidence legally insufficient and that the only ‘just’ remedy available was the direction of a judgement of acquittal.” In Greene, the Court remanded a similar case in light of Burks, holding that “a State may [not] retry a defendant after conviction has been reversed by an appellate court on the ground that the evidence introduced at the prior trial was insufficient, as a matter of law, to sustain a jury’s verdict.”