Double Jeopardy

The protection against being tried twice for the same offense

Overview

The rule against double jeopardy bars retrial after acquittal or, in most systems, after conviction, rooted in Roman law and Magna Carta procedure and guaranteed by the American Fifth Amendment. Jeopardy attaches when a trial properly begins, and the doctrine polices what counts as the same offense and the same sovereign. England abolished the bar for serious crimes in 2003 where new and compelling evidence emerges, and civil law systems long allowed retrial in defined cases, keeping the principle a study in finality against accuracy.