The prosecution of Backpage founders Michael Lacey and James Larkin and several other former executives for the classified-ad company can continue to drag on, per a new ruling<\/a> from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. The court said that trying them again after a mistrial was declared in their first trial would not count as double jeopardy.<\/p>\n

“No one is the least surprised by 9th Circuit ruling,” Lacey tells Reason<\/em> in an email. “We have always believed we must rely upon jurors, not judges, for a fair shake. And so to trial.”<\/p>\n

Lacey, Larkin, and the other defendants are likely to face trial again in 2023, though no date has been set. That would mean a sixth calendar year in which their lives are upended by this prosecution.<\/p>\n

(To this day, Lacey and Larkin are required to ask permission if they want to leave Maricopa County, Arizona, and must wear ankle monitors at all times. “They are a constant reminder of captivity,” says Lacey. “When they go off, they are loud and startle people in restaurants, super markets, retail outlets.”)<\/p>\n

The Backpage execs were arrested back in April 2018<\/a> and charged with facilitating prostitution. After federal prosecutors pulled a bunch<\/a> of questionable moves<\/a>\u2014and a judge ruled that exculpatory<\/span><\/span> evidence<\/a> accidentally sent to the defendants by federal prosecutors was inadmissible\u2014the case finally went to trial in September 2021.<\/p>\n

At that trial, prosecutors couldn’t stop talking about child sex trafficking\u2014a crime the defendants in this case are not<\/em> charged with\u2014and U.S. District Judge Susan M. Brnovich<\/a> declared a mistrial<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Lacey, Larkin, and the others then filed a motion to dismiss the case, arguing that putting them on trial again would amount to double jeopardy. A district judge dismissed<\/a> that motion last December. They appealed.<\/p>\n

Now, a three-judge panel from the 9th Circuit has weighed in. In a September 21 ruling, the 9th Circuit judges note that under Supreme Court precedent, the Constitution’s prohibition on double jeopardy only applies when a mistrial stems from prosecutorial conduct intended<\/em> to goad defendants into moving for a mistrial. It does not apply if a mistrial was declared because of impermissible conduct intended to help the state win. <\/span><\/p>\n

Lacey and Larkin had argued that prosecutors did<\/em> want them to ask for a mistrial<\/a>, as the first few days of the trial<\/a> were not making the government’s case look good. The 9th Circuit judges rejected this argument, writing that “the government’s case-in-chief was still in <\/span>its infancy” when the Backpage defendants asked for a mistrial. <\/span><\/p>\n

“At <\/span>minimum, the government still had a clear path to prevailing at trial” and “had no reason to sabotage its own trial,” the judges concluded, affirming the lower court judge’s denial of the motion to dismiss.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

That means the federal prosecution of Lacey, Larkin, and the other Backpage executives\u2014on pause as the motions related to double jeopardy were considered\u2014can resume.<\/p>\n

And U.S. taxpayers can continue footing the bill for this seemingly eternal attempt to put people in prison for running a website where sex workers advertised.<\/p>\n

The post Retrial of Backpage Execs Wouldn't Be Double Jeopardy, Court Says<\/a> appeared first on Reason.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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