• A sham prosecution is, in essence, a misuse of the dual-sovereignty doctrine. Under that doctrine, a defendant’s protection against double jeopardy does not provide protection against a prosecution by a different sovereignty. For example, if the defendant was first tried in federal court and acquitted, that fact would not forbid the state authorities from prosecuting the defendant in state court. But a sham prosecution — for example, a later state-court prosecution that is completely dominated or manipulated by the federal authorities that already prosecuted the defendant, so that the state-court proceeding is merely a tool of the federal authorities — will not withstand a double-jeopardy challenge. See DUAL-SOVEREIGNTY DOCTRINEE. [Cases: Double Jeopardy 53. C.J.S. Criminal Law § 217.]
sham prosecution
A prosecution that seeks to circumvent a defendant’s double-jeopardy protection by appearing to be prosecuted by another sovereignty, when it is in fact controlled by the sovereignty that already prosecuted the defendant for the same crime.
