## Facts

- Josef Perez was indicted for piracy, a capital offense, based on alleged acts against the schooner *Bee* near Cuba.
- Perez was tried in the U.S. Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York.
- After deliberations, the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict and was discharged without the consent of Perez or the United States.
- Perez argued that a new trial was barred because he had already been placed in jeopardy before a jury on the same capital charge.
- The circuit court judges divided on the legal effect of the discharge and certified the question to the Supreme Court.

## Issues

1. Whether discharging a deadlocked jury in a capital case, without the defendant’s consent, bars a subsequent trial for the same offense under double jeopardy principles.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court held that discharging the jury because it could not agree was not a legal bar to a future trial on the same indictment.
- The Court concluded that Perez had not been convicted or acquitted and could be retried.
- The Court directed that its answer be certified back to the circuit court consistent with this ruling.

## Legal Principles

- A defendant may be retried after a mistrial when, considering all circumstances, there is a “manifest necessity” to discharge the jury or when the “ends of public justice” would otherwise be defeated.
- Trial courts have authority to discharge a jury before verdict, but must exercise “sound discretion.”
- The discharge power should be used with “the greatest caution,” under urgent circumstances, and for plain and obvious causes, especially in capital cases.
- A hung jury is a classic example of “manifest necessity” permitting mistrial and retrial because the case cannot lawfully be resolved by verdict.

## Conclusion

The Court held that a mistrial declared after a genuinely deadlocked jury does not terminate jeopardy in a way that bars retrial; instead, retrial is permitted when discharge is justified by manifest necessity or the ends of public justice.


United States v. Perez, 22 U.S. (9 Wheat.) 579 (1824)