CRIMINAL LAW AND PROCEDURE - APPEAL BY STATE - CONSTITUTIONALITY OF STATUTES-DUE PROCESS OF LAW

Developing as a result of a period when an accused person was placed at a tremendous disadvantage at the hands of tyrannical judges exercising an unconscionable abuse of power, the concept that no person shall "be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb" was put into the Fifth Amendment of the Federal Constitution and into many of the state constitutions. As a part of this double jeopardy concept, the American courts, from the first, established the rule that the state should not be allowed to appeal in a criminal prosecution. The accused, rather than being imposed upon, was granted many other aids and safeguards. But in recent years there has been a reaction against the idea that the punishment of crime is a sort of invasion of natural right, and, a realization that, as Holmes put it, "at the present time in this country there is more danger that criminals will escape justice than that they will be subjected to tyranny."