Draft:Denezpi v. United States

Denezpi v. United States, 596 US__(2022), was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in which the court held that the Double Jeopardy Clause does not prohibit prosecuting a person twice for the "same conduct or action" but for the same "offense". The court further held that Double Jeopardy Clause does not prohibit successive prosecutions of distinct offenses arising from a single act.

Merle Denezpi, a member of Navajo tribe, pleaded guilty to a charge of assault in the Court of Indian Offenses. Six months later, a federal grand jury found Denezpi, guilty on a charge of aggravated assault based on the original conviction. Denezpi, argued that the decision of the district court violated the Double Jeopardy Clause because the Court of Indian offense is federal agency.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, authored the majority opinion of the court. The Court use the two-sovereignty principle, where the two offense arising from the same act, can be separately prosecuted without offending the Double Jeopardy Clause, even if they save similar elements and could not be separately prosecuted if enacted by a single sovereign.

Background
On July 17, 2017, Merle Denezpi and V.Y., both Navajo tribe member, traveled from Shiprock, New Mexico to V.Y.'s house in Towaoc, Colorado, which is within the Ute Mountain Ute Indian reservation. Inside the house, Denezpi barricaded the house and forced V.Y. to engage in non-consensual sex, Denezpi, allegedly threaten V.Y. with physical harm if she leave the house, Denezpi hid her clothes to prevent her from going to the police. In early morning of the next day, while Denezpi was sleeping, Y.V., traveled from the house to the nearby Ute Mountain Ute casino, shortly upon arriving, V.Y. was arrested for public intoxication and for a warrant for an unpaid fine. While being transported to a local jail, V.Y. reported the assault to the tribal authorities who began an investigation, V.Y. underwent a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE), the nurse who examined V.Y. found twenty-four injuries on her body, including bruises on her breasts, back, arms and legs, as well as seven injuries on her genitals. Approximately two hours after she reported the assault, police officers arrived in Y.V.'s house to investigate the allegations. When Denezpi heard police knocking in the house, Denezpi fled through the second floor window into a neighbor's yard where he hide for approximately thirteen hours. After the authorities found Denezpi, he denied the allegations and gave contradictory claims, after the authorities further confronted him for possible DNA evidence, he further claim that he and his girlfriend had engaged in consensual sex.

One day after the police confronted Denezpi, tribal authorities arrested Denezpi and the Court of Indian Offenses charged him of assault and battery with changes of terroristic threats and false imprisonment. Denezpi entered an Alford plea to the assault charge, five months after his conviction, he was release from the custody and the remaining charges were dismissed.

Six months later, a federal grand jury indicted Denezpi of one count of aggravated sexual abuse. Denezpi filed a motion to move the indictment, arguing that it violated the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause but the district court denied his motion to dismiss. The jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to one year of prison and ten years of supervised release. Denezpi appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit but the court affirmed the lower court's decision.