Cite as: 537 U. S. 101 (2003)
Ginsburg, J., dissenting
holding that the Double Jeopardy Clause "does not relieve a defendant from the consequences of his voluntary choice," ibid., the Court reiterated the underlying purpose of the Clause: to prevent the State from making "repeated attempts to convict an individual for an alleged offense, thereby subjecting him to embarrassment, expense and ordeal and compelling him to live in a continuing state of anxiety and insecurity," id., at 95 (quoting Green v. United States, 355 U. S. 184, 187 (1957)).
The ruling in Scott placing the defendant in that case outside the zone of double jeopardy protection, in sum, was tied to the absence of a completed first trial episode and to the defendant's choice to abort the initial trial proceedings. "[T]he Government," we explained, "was quite willing to continue with its production of evidence . . . , but the defendant elected to seek termination of the trial on grounds unrelated to guilt or innocence." 437 U. S., at 96. "This is scarcely a picture of an all-powerful state relentlessly pursuing a defendant who had either been found not guilty or who had at least insisted on having the issue of guilt submitted to the first trier of fact." Ibid.
II
Scott, it is true, did not home in on a case like Sattazahn's. The Court's reasoning, nevertheless, lends credence to the view that a trial-terminating judgment for life, not prompted by a procedural move on the defendant's part, creates a legal entitlement protected by the Double Jeopardy Clause. Cf. Rumsey, 467 U. S., at 211 ( judgment based on factual findings sufficient to establish "legal entitlement" to a life sentence bars retrial). Scott recognized that defendants have a double jeopardy interest in avoiding multiple prosecutions even when there has been no determination of guilt or innocence, and that this interest is implicated by preverdict judgments terminating trials. 437 U. S., at 92. The interest in avoiding a renewed prosecution following a final judg-
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