Double Jeopardy

At 3rd Trial, Sergeant Guilty of 1985 Triple Murder

(ABC News) – Master Sgt. Timothy Hennis was convicted once before of killing Kathryn Eastburn and her daughters, Kara, 5, and Erin, 3. He even spent several years on death row awaiting execution after his 1986 conviction, but he gained his freedom after an appeal and acquittal at a second trial in 1989.

HENNIS CONTINUED ARMY CAREER

The Fifth Amendment normally protects people from double jeopardy — that is, being tried for a crime of which they’ve already been acquitted.

There are, however, exceptions. The federal government — in this case, the Army — may try a suspect for a crime in spite of an earlier acquittal. The reason is as old as the nation itself: The federal government is a separate sovereign from the individual states; a different entity.

Hennis retired from his post-acquittal Army stint in 2004. However, in 2006, after cold case detectives with the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office sent evidence out for forensic testing not available at the time of the earlier trials, the Army recalled Hennis to active duty and charged him with the killings. [DNA evidence]

UNANIMOUS QUILTY VERDICT

When it was announced that the jury was returning to the courtroom with a verdict, several military police entered the courtroom. The jury entered. Hennis and his defense attorneys stood. And the verdict was read.

Across the courtroom sat Kathryn Eastburn’s elderly parents next to her husband, Gary Eastburn, and his only surviving daughter, Jana, who was an infant and in the house when her mother and sisters died. After the verdict, they cried and hugged prosecutors, some of whom also were in tears.

Hennis was ordered into confinement. As his wife looked on, MPs escorted him from the Ft. Bragg military courthouse in handcuffs.