A person shall not be held to answer on a second complaint, information, or indictment for an offense of which he or she was acquitted by a jury upon the merits on a former trial. Such acquittal may be pleaded in bar of a subsequent prosecution for the same offense, notwithstanding defects in the form or substance of the complaint, information, or indictment on which he or she was acquitted.
13 V.S.A. § 6556