In 355 B.C., Greek orator Demosthenes proclaimed that “the law forbids the same man to be tried twice on the same issue…”
That said, Ronald Gasser, tried and convicted of manslaughter in the road rage shooting of former football running back Joe McKnight in 2018 won his case today when the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled he could not be retried in the case for second degree murder.
Gasser was granted a new trial in 2020 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled split verdict cases unconstitutional.
Attorney Dane Ciolino, Gasser’s defense lawyer, says the court “got it right” in the case.
The state Supreme Court cited the fifth, fourteenth, and the Louisiana constitution on double jeopardy as well when issuing their opinion earlier this afternoon.
The court wrote in its opinion: “After our review of the procedural history of this case and relevant case law, we agree with the lower courts that double jeopardy bars the reinstatement and retrial of a defendant on a higher charge when he has been lawfully convicted of a lesser included offense, even though the conviction is later vacated.”
The trial court agreed with the defendant and granted the motion to quash the second trial, finding that “when the jury came back with the ten to two verdict to convict defendant of manslaughter, it was a legal verdict and also a legal acquittal of the second degree murder charge.”
“This principle was adopted by the framers of the United States Constitution in the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee that no person shall ‘for the same offence… be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb’…”