Montgomery v. Mississippi

Adrian Montgomery and Terome O’Neal were drinking beer and liquor and smoking marijuana in a park. An eyewitness saw O’Neal knock Montgomery’s joint to the ground, which prompted Montgomery to angrily attack O’Neal. Paramedics later found O’Neal on the ground unconscious. He died days later in the hospital of multiple blunt-force trauma. Montgomery was indicted for deliberate-design murder but convicted on the lesser-included crime of depraved-heart murder. The judge granted a mistrial when the State learned (after the jury had been empaneled) the medical examiner who had conducted O’Neal’s autopsy had a sudden family emergency, rendering him unavailable. Montgomery argued his second trial placed him in double jeopardy because there had been no manifest necessity for the mistrial. In affirming Montgomery's convictions, the Mississippi Supreme Court determined the medical examiner was a key witness whose unavailability was unanticipated by the State. And due to the unknown and open-ended nature of the emergency, a continuance did not appear to be a reasonable option. So there was manifest necessity to declare a mistrial. View "Montgomery v. Mississippi" on Justia Law