Justice Court’s Lack of Subject Matter Jurisdiction Prevents Double Jeopardy Problem

After an initial conviction was vacated due to a justice court's lack of subject matter jurisdiction, the second conviction at the district court level does not implicate double jeopardy protections 

South Jordan City v. Summerhays, 2017 UT App 18.

The Utah Court of Appeals held there is no double jeopardy if a crime is improperly tried in a city’s justice court and is later vacated by the district court and properly retried later. In the case, the defendant gave a guilty plea in justice court for violating a protective order, a class A misdemeanor, and began serving a ten-day sentence. After the guilty plea, the defendant immediately appealed his conviction in district court, arguing that the justice court had no jurisdiction to consider a criminal charge above a class B misdemeanor. The district court then vacated the judgment and the defendant was released.

The city properly refiled charges in district court soon after and the defendant moved to dismiss the charges because of the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment. The district court rejected the argument, finding that the justice court did not have jurisdiction to hear the case. Relying on Supreme Court jurisprudence regarding the double jeopardy, the Court of Appeals affirmed the district court’s ruling, finding that the justice court’s lack of subject matter jurisdiction prevented jeopardy from attaching from the initial conviction.

https://www.utcourts.gov/opinions/appopin/South%20Jordan%20City%20v.%20Summerhays20170126.pdf