A milestone in English legal history was reached this week when a man who had been cleared 15 years ago of strangling a young mother was convicted of her murder after a re-trial. Under the common-law principle of double jeopardy, no one may be tried twice in the same jurisdiction for an offence of which he has already been acquitted. But this ancient legal safeguard was breached by new rules that came into force last year. These allow re-trial for certain serious crimes when "new and compelling" evidence comes to light.
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