Meaning & use
double jeopardy
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Meanings
noununcountablelegal
The legal rule that a person cannot be tried a second time for the same crime after being found guilty or not guilty.
Grammar: No article is needed: double jeopardy applies here.
Patterns
- protected by double jeopardy
- double jeopardy rule
The defense argued that a new trial would violate double jeopardy.
Double jeopardy prevents the state from charging him again for the same offense.
In some countries, double jeopardy has exceptions for new evidence.
noununcountablefigurative
A situation in which someone suffers twice for the same mistake or faces danger from two sides.
Grammar: Used loosely, often with a feeling of unfairness: it felt like double jeopardy.
Patterns
- face double jeopardy
Being fined and also fired felt like double jeopardy to him.
The athlete faced double jeopardy after losing his medal and his sponsor.
Parents working while caring for relatives face a kind of double jeopardy.
Common combinations
- double jeopardy clause
- The double jeopardy clause is found in the Fifth Amendment.
- protection against double jeopardy
- The accused has protection against double jeopardy.
- violate double jeopardy
- Trying him again would violate double jeopardy.
- exception to double jeopardy
- New evidence can be an exception to double jeopardy in some countries.
- plead double jeopardy
- Her lawyer pleaded double jeopardy to stop the second case.
Synonyms and how they differ
- retrial ban
- Retrial ban is a descriptive phrase for the rule, but double jeopardy is the standard legal term.
- double punishment
- Double punishment names being punished twice in general, while double jeopardy is a specific trial rule.
- double trouble
- Double trouble is a casual phrase for two problems at once and has no legal sense.
Word family
- jeopardy noun
- danger of harm or loss
- jeopardize verb
- to put at risk
- retrial noun
- a second trial of a case
- acquittal noun
- a decision that someone is not guilty
Commonly confused: double jeopardy or double standard?
double jeopardy vs double standard
A double standard is an unfair rule applied differently to different people, while double jeopardy is about being tried twice.
Practice
After the jury found him not guilty, the prosecutor tried to charge him again, but the judge refused because of ___.
Choose one answer.
Double jeopardy bars a second trial for the same crime. Double standards is about unfair rules, so it does not describe a legal bar.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “double jeopardy”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.