Roger Stone was found guilty in a Federal Court on 7 counts. Stone and some people on right wing media are calling on trump to pardon Stone. One I saw actually calling on God to push Trump to do so. My question is if Trump does pardon Stone, can another level of government, such as a state, try him for the same crimes as the Federal courts after the pardon wipes the slate clean? Does double jeopardy apply when a person has been pardoned on the Federal level conviction in a State court? Would the State court system have to come up with crimes totally different from those used in the Federal courts?
This is where it gets really dicey if we are being honest.
You are correct in that because this is Federal Court that gives Trump two options if he wants to get further involved. Trump has the capability to issue an election season pardon (which comes with political implications of course) or he can commute whatever sentence Stone is handed.
While Stone is facing 50 years it is unlikely he will be handed any more than 2-3 years.
No matter if Trump goes down the full pardon route or the commute route, they both technically leave the conviction on record as the final disposition of that case that received a pardon or sentence commute. So if a State brought up independent charges against Stone, the likely defense is double jeopardy but that is no longer sound argument.
*Ironically and just this past summer,* the Supreme Court allowed for an exception to double jeopardy on a 7-2 vote over Terance Gamble.
A convicted felon caught with a weapon and ended up facing Federal charges first. Got a year, then had to face State charges who tacked on another 3-4 years but as concurrent. Meaning held in one location them moved to finish the rest in some other location (probably.) The challenge got to the Supreme Court and the ruling allowed for this exception saying that even though the Constitution forbids subsequent prosecutions (double jeopardy clause) that "the federal government and the states are independent sovereigns, the court has allowed separate prosecutions of the same conduct in state and federal courts."
In the 2 justice separate descents Gorsuch, which surprised me, said "A free society does not allow its government to try the same individual for the same crime until it’s happy with the result" and then added "Unfortunately, the court today endorses a colossal exception to this ancient rule against double jeopardy."
This ruling bites Stone and Trump in the ass. In this case Trump could do absolutely nothing, Stone presumably gets 2-3 years (or something along those lines,) and the State of New York for example could run it up with a longer but concurrent sentence and pass by this 7-2 recent Supreme Court ruling. And the State sentence, time issued, would stay.
