- Double jeopardy may enable a defendant to seek a stay of the proceedings as an abuse of process in reliance on an assurance of no prosecution.
The first part of this article examined the circumstances in which it would offend the court’s sense of justice and propriety to proceed with a prosecution when the accused has faced that same or similar peril before. Part 2 will focus on defendants who seek a stay of the proceedings as an abuse of process in reliance on an assurance of no prosecution.
Abuse of process
Even if proceedings do not put someone in peril of a second prosecution, they may create double jeopardy by exposing them to the danger, for a second time, of a first prosecution. This type of situation typically arises where a prosecutor reneges on an assurance that it will not prosecute in relation to a particular incident. Defaulting on such a promise may be an abuse of process, particularly if the defendant acted
