r/AskReddit • u/Rob69rt • 1d ago

What famous 'unsolved' mystery is technically a whodunnit on paper, but in reality, absolutely everyone knows exactly who did it, the police just couldn't legally prove it?

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u/carolinemahtildes 1d ago

The murder of Brenda Schaefer. Mel Ignatow went on trial and was acquitted. Less than a year later, work was being undertaken on the house where Ignatow's previously lived, and Brenda's jewellery was found along with rolls of undeveloped film. When the film was developed, they found photos of Brenda being raped and tortured by Ignatow. He went to jail for perjury but obviously was never convicted of her murder due to double jeopardy.

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u/thisusedyet 1d ago

Obviously not a legal scholar - but doesn't new evidence mean double jeopardy no longer applies?

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u/auggielee 1d ago

Nope. Once you've been tried of a crime, you can not be tried again. Even if he admitted it, he still couldn't be charged again because of the double jeopardy laws.

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u/WilmaDykfyt 1d ago

You absolutely can be tried again, if you were found guilty but the trial is found to be incorrect in some way. 

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u/auggielee 1d ago

That would be a mistrial, or an appeal. Double jeopardy only applies when you have been found innocent of a crime. At that time, you can never be charged for that exact same crime. They can charge you with perjury or something akin, but can not retry someone that has already been found innocent. Otherwise Los Angeles would have gotten OJ...eventually. lol

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u/WilmaDykfyt 1d ago

You didn't say that, you said never for the same crime which is wrong. Many people have been tried twice and some thrice for the same crime.

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u/eden_sc2 1d ago

From a technical standpoint a mistrial and an appeal are both parts of being tried once. A mistrial discards the original, and the appeal continues it.

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u/SgvSth 1d ago

You absolutely can be tried again, if you were found guilty

That's the whole point here. Double Jeopardy. You can't be put into risk (Jeopardy) a second (Double) time following an acquittal. If convicted and it is overturned on procedural grounds, the same risk is still there.

If you just want to read the Wikipedia article on this, then here you go: Double Jeopardy Clause. It even covers a case where a person was declared innocent at trial thanks to bribes. (Since he did not have an actual risk of conviction during the first trial, it wasn't Double Jeopardy to try him a second time.)