Wrong. They had 2 seperate trials before. One in which she was found guilty and sent to prison. And then the second trial was via the appeals process, that one she was acquitted in. You can't have an appeals process unless there was a conclusion to a previous trial in a court system. And you cannot have an acquittal in the middle of a trial, it is always at the end of a trial. Now they are starting up another trial in which the same charges are being laid, IE Double Jeapordy. It is not one huge single trial.
Not wrong, you are trying to explain to a Dutch person, with a not dissimilar system as Italy has how appeals and higher appeals go and failing miserably.
In the Netherlands and Italy you can be tried and both the suspect and the prosecution (if they disagree with the result of the trial in verdict or punishment given) they can appeal the trial and the same case will be redone in a higher court in which both the prosecution and the suspect can make their case for acquittal or conviction. This is not a new trial/double jeopardy but the same case just in a higher court.
In the Netherlands and in Italy you can appeal your court case and bump it to a higher court, this is not double jeopardy because no new case if filed with the court hence no double jeopardy. It maybe different in the US but in the Netherlands and from what I know a verdict is final only if the entire appeals process have been run through or when no appeal is called for within the time frame within the appeal can be requested.
For example, in a murder case with case number 1001 (armed robbery where a bank employee is killed) a suspect is found guilty for manslaughter and robbery and sentenced to 12 years. The DA is of the opinion that their evidence warranted a conviction for murder and the 20 years they asked for and within the time period allowed for this (normally one waits until the written justification of the verdict has been filed with the court before doing so) the DA appeals.
Then the same case 1001 will be re-heard by a higher court, this time the court does agree with the DA and sentences the suspect to 18 years in jail. This time the suspect who was convicted disagrees and asks for review (cassatie in Dutch) by the highest court in the Netherlands. Only if this higher court agrees that the sentence is fair and just (they do not look at the evidence itself but at the process and the way the law was interpreted by the higher court) the case if done and the verdict final. But, for arguments sake the highest court finds that the lower court did not interpret the law correctly, they then vacate the sentence of 18 years and send the case back to the lower court. This time the trial of case 1001 ends in a the court this time finding manslaughter with aggravating circumstances and sentences the suspect again to 18 years. The suspect again appeals within the time period allowed for this and this time the supreme court decides that the court used the correct laws and descriptions to convict and the case if final.
At that moment and that moment alone the case with case number 1001 is over.
Now the other way around, in a murder case with case number 1002 (child kidnapping, rape and murder) a suspect is found guilty of child abduction, rape and murder and is sentenced to 18 years plus TBS (mental incarceration until the court is convinced that the mental disease that has lead to the suspect doing this crime is found to be cured). The DA is a happy camper and decides he will not appeal, he asked for 20 years plus TBS but can live with the 18 years given. This time the suspect appeals within the time allowed for appealing because he does not want to be sentenced to TBS (which could keep him in jail for life) and in a higher court is again found guilty and they again convict to 18 years and TBS. The suspect however says he is not crazy and does not want TBS on top of his 18 years in jail.
The supreme court reviews the case and disagrees with the suspect and says that the TBS sentence is upheld.
At that moment and that moment alone the case with case number 1002 is over.
That is how our and the Italian legal system works, it may not be your legal system but as before, this is still not a case of double jeopardy because the original case is still running.
