Benton v. Maryland 395 U.S. 784 (1969)

• Author: David Gordon
• Pages: 169-170

Page 169

This decision, one of the last of the WARREN COURT, extended the DOUBLE JEOPARDY provision of the Fifth

Page 170

Amendment to the states. (See INCORPORATION DOCTRINE.) A Maryland prisoner, having been acquitted on a larceny charge, successfully appealed his burglary conviction, only to be reindicted and convicted on both counts. A 7?2 Supreme Court, speaking through Justice THURGOOD MARSHALL, overruled PALKO V. CONNECTICUT (1937) and, relying on DUNCAN V. LOUISIANA (1968), declared that the Fifth Amendment guarantee "represents a fundamental ideal" which must be applied. Dissenting, Justices JOHN MARSHALL HARLAN and POTTER STEWART reiterated their opposition to incorporation, concluding that the WRIT OF CERTIORARI had been improvidently granted. In OBITER DICTUM they added that retrial here violated even the Palko standards.

DAVID GORDON

(1986)