724
Opinion of White, J.
violates specific duties imposed by the court itself, arising directly from the parties' participation in judicial proceedings." Id., at 800.
The fact that two criminal prohibitions promote different interests may be indicative of legislative intent and, to that extent, important in deciding whether cumulative punishments imposed in a single prosecution violate the Double Jeopardy Clause. See Missouri v. Hunter, 459 U. S. 359, 366-368 (1983). But the cases decided today involve instances of successive prosecutions in which the interests of the defendant are of paramount concern. To subject an individual to repeated prosecutions exposes him to "embarrassment, expense and ordeal," Green v. United States, 355 U. S. 184, 187 (1957), violates principles of finality, United States v. Wilson, 420 U. S. 332, 343 (1975), and increases the risk of a mistaken conviction. That one of the punishments is designed to protect the court rather than the public is, in this regard, of scant comfort to the defendant.2
It is true that the Court has not always given primacy to the defendant's interest. In particular, the Government directs attention to the dual sovereignty doctrine under which, "[w]hen a defendant in a single act violates the 'peace
2 It also is worth noting that sentences for contumacious conduct can be quite severe. Under federal law, there is no statutory limit to the sentence that can be imposed in a jury-tried criminal contempt proceeding. See 18 U. S. C. § 401. The same is true in the District of Columbia. See D. C. Code Ann. § 11-944 (Supp. 1992); see also Caldwell v. United States, 595 A. 2d 961, 964-966 (D. C. 1991). Significantly, some courts have found no bar to the imposition of a prison sentence for contempt even where the court order that was transgressed was an injunction against violation of a statute that itself did not provide for imprisonment as a penalty. See, e. g., United States v. Quade, 563 F. 2d 375, 379 (CA8 1977), cert. denied, 434 U. S. 1064 (1978); Mitchell v. Fiore, 470 F. 2d 1149, 1154 (CA3 1972), cert. denied, 411 U. S. 938 (1973); United States v. Fidanian, 465 F. 2d 755, 757-758 (CA5), cert. denied, 409 U. S. 1044 (1972).
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