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429 U.S. 121

97 S. Ct. 400

50 L. Ed. 2d 336

Docket No. 75-1536.

United States v. Kopp

Supreme Court of the United States · decided 1976-12-06

Relies on Almeida-Sanchez v. United States · United States v. Wilson · United States v. Morrison

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Vacated and remanded · 9–0 · Opinion by Per Curiam · Decided 1976-12-06

How this case has been cited

Cited by 15 later decisions (4 by the Supreme Court) — most recently December 1992

4 district · 7 state decisions

70197619801990decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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PER CURIAM.

¶1

The operative facts herein are substantially identical to those in United States v. Morrison, 429 U.S. 1, 97 S.Ct. 24, 50 L.Ed.2d 1, and United States v. Rose, 429 U.S. 5, 97 S.Ct. 26, 50 L.Ed.2d 5. Respondent's car was stopped by Border Patrol agents; a search disclosed marihuana. Respondent lost a motion to suppress and was found guilty after a bench trial. Following this trial, but before sentencing, the District Court, relying upon our decision in Almeida-Sanchez v. United States, 413 U.S. 266, 93 S.Ct. 2535, 37 L.Ed.2d 596 (1973), dismissed the indictment. The Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, as it did in Morrison and Rose, found the Government's appeal barred by double jeopardy.

¶2

In United States v. Wilson, 420 U.S. 332, 95 S.Ct. 1013, 43 L.Ed.2d 232 (1975), we held that double jeopardy would not bar a Government appeal if success on that appeal would result in the reinstatement of a verdict of guilty. The fact that the dismissal of the indictment here occurred after a general finding of guilt rendered by the court in a bench trial, rather than after a return of a verdict of guilty by a jury, is immaterial. Morrison, supra. Double jeopardy therefore does not bar an appeal by the Government.

¶3

We grant the petition for certiorari, vacate the judgment of the Court of Appeals, and remand to that court for proceedings consistent herewith.

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