Opinion
(AC 20700)
Argued February 28
Officially released April 16, 2002
Information charging the defendant with the crime of felony murder, brought to the Superior Court in the judicial district of Hartford, where the court, Clifford, J., denied the defendant's motion to dismiss on double jeopardy grounds, and the defendant appealed to this court. Affirmed.
Margaret P. Levy, for the appellant (defendant). Denise B. Smoker, assistant state's attorney, with whom, on the brief, were James E. Thomas, state's attorney, and John F. Fahey, assistant state's attorney, for the appellee (state).
Opinion
The defendant appeals from the judgment of the trial court denying his motion to dismiss the information against him based on principles of double jeopardy and collateral estoppel. As noted in the court's comprehensive memorandum of decision, the question of whether a defendant may properly be retried for felony murder after a mistrial due to a deadlocked jury on the felony murder charge, but a conviction of a predicate offense, was answered in the affirmative by our Supreme Court in State v. James, 247 Conn. 662, 674, 725 A.2d 316 (1999). The defendant's unbriefed claim, raised for the first time in oral argument, that James should not be applied retroactively is unavailing and facially frivolous.