Melville Fuller

“ If there be no such law, and if he is suffering no such deprivation, we need not be curious in explanation of the particular ground of our exercise of jurisdiction.
The statutes of Massachusetts have provided since 1851 that 'when a final judgment in a criminal case is reversed by the supreme judicial court on account of error in the sentence, the court may render such judgment therein as should have been rendered, or may remand the case for that purpose to the court before which the conviction was had.' Acts 1851, chap. 87; Pub. Stat. chap. ”

“ The convict, if he obtains a reversal of the judgment, and is again convicted on a second trial, may be sentenced to a new term of imprisonment, and the court is not bound to regulate the second sentence in view of the fact that the convict has already suffered imprisonment under the first sentence. ”

“ He paid the fine, and thereafter the circuit court vacated the former judgment, and sentenced him again to imprisonment only. It was held that it was a fundamental principle that no man could be twice punished by judicial judgments for the same offense, and that when a judgment had been executed by full satisfaction of one of the alternative penalties of the law, the court could not change the judgment so as to impose another. ”

“ On their writ of error this court held that a general verdict of acquittal upon the issue of not guilty to an indictment undertaking to charge murder, and not objected to before the verdict as insufficient in that respect, is a bar to a second indictment for the same killing. ”

“ As this statute was reasonable, was intended for the benefit of the accused, as well as of the community, and was entirely within the admitted powers of the state, we are unable to see that it is in itself open to attack as being unconstitutional; and as this plaintiff in error set the proceedings in question in motion, and they conformed to the statute, we do not perceive how they can be regarded as otherwise than valid. ”

“ In People ex rel. Trezza v. Brush, 128 N. Y. 529, 536, 28 N. E. 533, Trezza had been sentenced to death, and prosecuted an appeal to the court of appeals of New York, pending which he was taken to the state prison and detained in close confinement. ”