Mick J. Careaga v. United States
DueProcess FifthAmendment HabeasCorpus Privacy
I. Whether the Due Process clause permits a court to ignore without inquiry a jury's finding of Not Guilty on a lesser, necessarily included charge, while accepting the same jury's finding, on the same verdict form, of Guilty on the greater charge.
II. Whether the right to a trial by jury is violated when a jury returns a form of verdict which both acquits a defendant of a necessarily included offense and convicts that same defendant of the greater offense, and the trial court ignores the acquittal.
Whether the Due Process clause permits a court to ignore a jury's finding of Not Guilty on a lesser, necessarily included charge while accepting the same jury's finding of Guilty on the greater charge