Publication Date
2023
College
College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
Department
Political Science
Document Type
Article
Description
One day, you decide to use a firearm to rob a convenience store. You are caught, and are charged with first degree robbery and brandishing a deadly weapon. These two charges came from the same crime; would this be considered double jeopardy? Blockburger v. United States, a landmark supreme court case, settled this legal question in 1932. The case established the "Blockburger test", which states that the government can only prosecute an individual for violating two different statutes in a single crime/act if each statute requires an element/fact for the government to prove that is independent of the other statute.