(67) Autrefois acquit protected the finality of acquittals, diminishing
As a threshold matter, the pleas of autrefois acquit and autrefois
Artemi's lawyers moved to dismiss the case against him on the basis of "
autrefois acquit" -- Latin for "previously acquitted" -- as the CySEC had exempted him from administrative sanctions, but the court denied this as well.
(22) However, after the appeal, the prosecution tried to move forward with the robbery count, and the defendant pleaded autrefois acquit. (23) The trial judge concluded that the jury had not acquitted the defendant on the robbery count and the judge refused to exercise his discretion and express an opinion that the prosecution should not proceed.
A plea of autrefois acquit is a plea where a defendant is stating that he has been charged with the same (or a factually similar crime) and was acquitted of that crime, and that re-trial is barred for violating double jeopardy.
(45) Those pleas include autrefois acquit, (46) autrefois convict, (47) autrefois attaint, (48) and former pardon.
Therefore, Article 44(a) and (b)'s language "envisages only the old common law pleas of former acquittal and former conviction[, autrefois acquit and autrefois convict,] and it did not consider the modern doctrine that jeopardy can attach before verdict or findings." (151) As a result, Article 44 is jeopardy in its pure common law form, requiring a verdict before jeopardy "attaches" or one is actually in jeopardy of being punished or tried twice for the same offense.
Nonetheless, by the seventeenth century, the pleas of autrefois acquit (prior acquittal) and autrefois convict (prior conviction) had become firmly embedded principles of the English common law.
(170) As a result, the plea of autrefois acquit was properly denied.
At common law, the double jeopardy idea encompassed two basic pleas in bar, prior acquittal and prior conviction--in law French, autrefois acquit de meme felonie and autrefois convict de meme felonie.(47) The obvious idea here is that if a person has, on a prior occasion (autrefois) been acquitted or convicted of the exact same crime (la meme felonie) with which he is now charged, he can plead the previous judgment as a bar to the second indictment.
But the Clause is more precious for its protection of the innocent, via the constitutionally grounded plea of autrefois acquit. If Amanda is acquitted in a fair and error-free trial for attempted murder, the state may not ignore this final judgment and force her into a second trial for the same attempted murder.
His lawyer also persevered, however, and Kizzie won the benefit of what for humans is called
autrefois acquit, or the Americans might call the double jeopardy rule, and the courts barred further proceedings against Kizzie on the same complaint.