I have a question for the legal eagles about double jeopardy...

[bjornolf]

http://www.timesdispatch.com/rtd/new...222405/279820/

This guy Powell murdered and raped a woman and raped and tried to murder her younger sister in their home. He was found guilty of capital murder and sentenced to death, but the VA Supreme Court overturned on appeal, saying that they hadn't proved the rape and needed to try him on murder 1. After that, Powell wrote the prosecutor a detailed letter taunting him, describing how he raped her during the attack. They re-tried him on capital murder with the new evidence of the letter and found him guilty and he was sentenced to die again. Now the SCOTUS has stopped the execution so that they can decide whether to take the case. His attorneys are claiming double jeopardy. I have a few questions about this.

1. Why didn't the attorneys claim double jeopardy DURING the trial (maybe they did)?

2. Is it double jeopardy if there's new evidence (his letter to the attorney where he admitted to everything)? I'm not sure how that works.

Thanks. This just seemed like an odd case where there might be an exception to the double jeopardy rule. Also, does double jeopardy apply when you were found guilty and it was overturned, since he wasn't straight up acquitted?