| The Supreme Court vacated the judgment of the intermediate court of appeals (ICA) and the circuit court's judgment of conviction and sentence, holding that the circuit court abused its discretion in denying Defendant's challenge for cause of Juror 48, an error that required that Defendant's conviction be vacated, but that double jeopardy did not preclude a retrial. Defendant was convicted of two counts of theft and one count of criminal property damage. On appeal, Defendant argued, among other things, that the circuit court erred by denying his challenge to two prospective jurors for cause, thereby violating his right to peremptory challenges. The ICA affirmed. The Supreme Court held that Defendant's conviction must be vacated and the case remanded for a new trial because the circuit court improperly denied Defendant's challenge for cause of Juror 48, which required him to exercise one of his peremptory challenges to excuse that juror and caused him to exhaust his peremptory challenge, which impaired his right to exercise a peremptory challenge on a different juror. But because there was substantial evidence to support Defendant's convictions, double jeopardy principles did not preclude a retrial. |
