What is the test for a plea of "double jeopardy” in a criminal case?

Alberta, Canada


The following excerpt is from Alberta (Attorney General) v. Grocutt, 1977 CanLII 649 (AB QB):

Cockburn C.J. in Regina v. Charlesworth (1861), 1 B. & S. 460, 121 E.R. 786 at 804, explains the matter of double jeopardy on which the pleas of autrefois convict and autrefois acquit are based: “It is said that a man is not to be tried twice, and is not a second time to be put in jeopardy; and that applies equally to this case as to a case where a man has been convicted or acquitted. In that I cannot concur; and the reasoning of Crampton J. is conclusive on that subject. When we talk of a man being twice tried, we mean a trial which proceeds to its legitimate and lawful conclusion by verdict; and when we speak of a man being twice put in jeopardy, we mean put in jeopardy by the verdict of a jury; and he is not tried nor put in jeopardy until the verdict is given.”

In the Charlesworth case Wightman J. at p. 806 quotes with approval Crampton J. in Conway v. The Queen (1845), 5 L.T.O.S. 458, 7 I.L.R. 149 at 178, that: “… the true and rational doctrine is, that where a trial proves abortive in consequence of no legal verdict being given, a venire de novo ought to go, whether the result has flowed from the error of the Judge or the jury or of both.”

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