STATE OF NEW JERSEY VS. ADRIENNE N. SMITH AND ORVILLE COUSINS (17-08-1176, BERGEN COUNTY AND STATEWIDE) (A-0838-20T4)
This appeal requires the court to determine whether the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic provided a sufficient legal reason and manifest necessity for the judge to terminate the trial, where the jury had been impaneled and sworn and the trial was well under way. The court concluded it positively and decidedly did. In reaching that conclusion, the court declined to dismiss the charges, and it applied age-old legal principles guiding the federal and state constitutional prohibition against double jeopardy.
