What is the test for reversal of a jury verdict in a murder case?

California, United States of America


The following excerpt is from People v. Santamaria, 35 Cal.Rptr.2d 624, 8 Cal.4th 903, 884 P.2d 81 (Cal. 1994):

"The People make several other arguments in favor of reversal, none of which we find persuasive. First, that the jury was not required to isolate one theory as the basis for its guilty verdict on the murder charge, as the People correctly observe, is not to the point. True, the jury was not required to decide whether defendant was the perpetrator or an aider and abettor in order to find him guilty; rather, each juror need only have found him guilty of murder beyond a reasonable doubt. (See People v. Pride (1992) 3 Cal.4th 195, 249, 10 Cal.Rptr.2d 636, 833 P.2d 643.) Nonetheless, the prosecution having initially failed to prove defendant personally used the knife during the killing, as the negative finding on the enhancement demonstrates, the collateral estoppel component of double jeopardy now prevents it from a second try at proving the theory the jury rejected at the first trial. Here, as in the case of reversal for evidentiary insufficiency, 'the prosecution cannot complain of prejudice, for it has been given one fair opportunity to offer whatever proof it could assemble.' (Burks v. United States, supra, 437 U.S. at p. 16, 98 S.Ct. at p. 2150, fn. omitted.)

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