United States v. Theodore Roosevelt Patrick, Jr., AKA Ted Patrick

Patrick was indicted for kidnapping in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1201 . The trial court entered a judgment which recites:

The United States appeals. We conclude that the United States cannot appeal, and we therefore dismiss.

The Criminal Appeals Act, 18 U.S.C. § 3731 , as amended in 1971, provides, in pertinent part:

In United States v. Wilson, 1975, 420 U.S. 332, at 338-39 , 95 S.Ct. 1013, at 1019 , 43 L.Ed.2d 232, at 239 , the Court construed the Act as follows:

Accord: Serfass v. United States, 1975, 420 U.S. 377, 387 , 95 S.Ct. 1055, 1062 , 43 L.Ed.2d 265, 273 .

We therefore turn to the question whether “the double jeopardy clause prohibits further prosecution.” (§ 3731, supra.)

Here is what happened in this case. Patrick was employed by the California parents of a young woman of 19, who had joined a religious sect and gone to live at its headquarters in the state of Washington, to forcibly remove her to California and “deprogram” her — i. e., persuade or compel her to give up her belief in the tenets of the sect and return to her former beliefs and life. Patrick did what he was hired to do.

The case was set for trial on December 10, 1974. On December 2, the…