Ex Parte Samuel Bauder, Appellant

Summary

The Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas reversed the Fourth Court of Appeals and remanded for further proceedings, holding that under the Texas Constitution double jeopardy bars a successive prosecution only when the prosecutor’s misconduct was intended to induce a mistrial or the prosecutor was aware and consciously disregarded the risk that the misconduct would require a mistrial, and the trial conditions were so extreme that the trial judge need not have granted the mistrial. The opinion also clarifies that a mistrial granted in response to ordinary reversible error does not invoke the double jeopardy bar. Justice Baird concurred and Justice Keller dissented.