# Commonwealth v. Mills

> Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · December 31, 1971 · 447 Pa. 163

URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9736384

## Case

- **Full name:** Commonwealth v. Mills, Appellant
- **Court:** Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
- **Decided:** December 31, 1971
- **Citations:** 447 Pa. 163; 286 A.2d 638; 1971 Pa. LEXIS 1165
- **Precedential status:** Published
- **Opinion:** Dissent by Bell
- **Judges:** Babbiebi, Barbieri, Bell, Eagen, Jones, O'Brien, Pomeroy, Roberts
- **Cited by:** 87 later opinions in the Frix Law Library

## Citator (automated)

- No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases.
- Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9736384

## How later opinions describe it (automated extraction)

- observing that the federal double jeopardy clause protects against “multiple punishment for the same offense at one trial”

## Opinion text

*175 Dissenting Opinion by
Mb. Chief Justice Bell:
This case is undoubtedly governed and ruled by Bartkus v. Illinois, 359 U.S. 121 , and Abbate v. United States, 359 U.S. 187 , which hold that a person can be indicted and tried for the same crime in both Federal and State Courts. While I think they should be reversed or modified, I cannot go as far as the Majority do, and I believe the test which the Majority adopt (prospectively, and apply retroactively) is so indefinite and so subject to Judicial caprice that I must dissent for each of these reasons.

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/9736384. Public record. Not legal advice.