peril, particularly danger of being charged with or convicted of a particular crime.
The U. S. Constitution guarantees in the Fifth Amendment that no one can "be twice
put in jeopardy of life or limb" for the same offense. Thus, once a person has been
acquitted, he/she may not be charged again for that crime. However, if there was
a mistrial, hung jury or reversal of conviction on appeal (but the defendant was
not declared innocent in the ruling), the defendant may be charged with the crime
again and tried again. In a few situations, a defendant is not in double jeopardy
when being tried for a violation of a similar (but different) federal criminal (penal)
statute based on some of the same circumstances as a state prosecution, such as
violation of a murder victim's civil rights, as was done in the case against the
killer of civil rights leader Medgar Evers.
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