Of all the rock-ribbed beliefs that accompany our understanding of
the American legal system, the idea that criminal defendants are free
from being tried twice for the same crime -- double jeopardy -- is
perhaps the most overstated and misunderstood. The truth is that
defendants get tried twice all the time for the same conduct -- in
federal court and then state court, for example -- and the
constitutional protections of "double jeopardy" we all like to talk
about at cocktail parties have been shaved down over and over again by
judges eager to aid prosecutors at the expense of defendants.
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