Can a defendant be retried for a retrial of a prior conviction for sexual assault?

The high court's decision in Monge II reviewed and affirmed our decision in People v. Monge (1997) 16 Cal.4th 826, 66 Cal.Rptr.2d 853, 941 P.2d 1121 (Monge I), which held that retrial of a prior conviction allegation does not violate the double jeopardy protections of either the federal Constitution or the California Constitution. Like the high court, the lead opinion in Monge I rejected the analogy between a "failure of proof" on a prior conviction allegation and "an acquittal at the guilt phase of a criminal trial." (Id. at p. 837, 66 Cal.Rptr.2d 853, 941 P.2d 1121 (lead opn. of Chin, J.).) The lead opinion reasoned that a trial of such an allegation "is simple and straightforward as compared to the guilt phase of a criminal trial," and "[o]ften ... involves only the presentation of a certified copy of the prior conviction along with the defendant's photograph and fingerprints. In many cases, defendants offer no evidence at all, and the outcome is relatively predictable." (Id. at p. 838, 66 Cal.Rptr.2d 853, 941 P.2d 1121.) Moreover, such a trial "is merely a determination, for purposes of punishment, of the defendant's status, which, like age or gender, is readily determinable from the public record." (Ibid.) "Like a trial in which the defendant's age or gender is at issue, the prior conviction trial merely determines a question of the defendant's continuing status, irrespective of the present offense, and the prosecution may reallege and retry that status in as many successive cases as it is relevant [citations], even if a prior jury has rejected the allegation [citation]. If a jury rejects the allegation, it has not acquitted the defendant of his prior conviction status. [Citation.] `A defendant cannot be "acquitted" of that status any more than he can be "acquitted" of being a certain age or sex or any other inherent fact.' [Citation.]" (Id. at p. 839, 66 Cal.Rptr.2d 853, 941 P.2d 1121.)