Joseph Nicholas Crisafi v. Arthur L. Oliver, Warden, Folsom State Prison

Joseph Nicholas Crisafi, in California penal custody under a judgment and sentence for rape and kidnapping, appeals from a district court order denying, without hearing, his application for a writ of habeas corpus.

Crisaf i’s first point on appeal is predicated on the fact, as alleged in his application, that during his state trial for kidnapping and rape, the prosecuting witness in an earlier trial of Crisafi on an entirely different rape charge, of which Crisafi was acquitted, was permitted to testify over the objection of Crisaf i’s counsel. This witness testified concerning the details of the prior offense. Crisafi argues that he was thus placed in double jeopardy contrary to the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.

As the law announced by the Supreme Court now stands, the specific limitation imposed on the federal government by the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment does not bind the states by virtue of the Fourteenth Amendment. Bartkus v. People of State of Illinois, 359 U.S. 121, 127 , 79 S.Ct. 676 , 3 L.Ed.2d 684 . But, apart from the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment, the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, standing alone, imposes some…