248
Stevens, J., dissenting
ality. Where a previous judgment of acquittal was based upon a general verdict, as is usually the case, this approach requires a court to 'examine the record of a prior proceeding, taking into account the pleadings, evidence, charge, and other relevant matter, and conclude whether a rational jury could have grounded its verdict upon an issue other than that which the defendant seeks to foreclose from consideration.' The inquiry 'must be set in a practical frame and viewed with an eye to all the circumstances of the proceedings.' Sealfon v. United States, 332 U. S. 575, 579. Any test more technically restrictive would, of course, simply amount to a rejection of the rule of collateral estoppel in criminal proceedings, at least in every case where the first judgment was based upon a general verdict of acquittal."
A fair appraisal of the general verdict of acquittal on Count I compels the conclusion that Schiro's death sentence rests entirely on the trial judge's constitutionally impermissible reexamination of the critical issue resolved in Schiro's favor by the jury's verdict on Count I. The Court's contrary conclusion rests on a "technically restrictive" approach that amounts to a rejection of the rule of collateral estoppel in capital sentencing proceedings.
I respectfully dissent.
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