Supreme Court holds that when a conviction is reversed because the prosecution occurred in the wrong venue, retrial is allowed and does not violate the Double Jeopardy Clause

In Smith v. United States, Case No. 21-1576 (June 15, 2023), the United States Supreme Court held that the Constitution permits the retrial of a defendant following a trial in an improper venue conducted before a jury drawn from the wrong district. The Court found that a judicial decision on venue is fundamentally different from a jury’s general verdict of acquittal. When a jury returns a general verdict of not guilty, its decision cannot be upset by speculation or inquiry into such matters by courts. Conversely, retrial is permissible when a trial terminates on a basis unrelated to factual guilt or innocence of the offense of which the defendant is accused, e.g., juror deadlock. Similarly, the reversal of a conviction based on a violation of the Venue or Vicinage Clauses, even when styled as a “judgment of acquittal” under Rule 29, plainly does not resolve the bottom-line question of criminal culpability. In this case, then, the Eleventh Circuit’s decision that venue was improper did not adjudicate Smith’s culpability, and thus does not trigger the Double Jeopardy Clause.