⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit hears argument in United States versus Taylor. Blair Taylor was convicted of murder in Louisiana state court in 2017. After that conviction was vacated on appeal because of a non-unanimous jury verdict, he was retried and acquitted. The federal government then charged him for the same shooting, and a federal jury convicted him. He now appeals. Because he did not raise these objections in the district court, the court of appeals reviews them only for plain error. The prosecutor who tried the first state trial, Inga Petrovich, had by then moved to the United States Attorney's Office, and she served as one of the prosecutors on the federal case. Taylor argues his federal prosecution violates the Double Jeopardy Clause and due process. He contends the dual sovereignty doctrine does not apply when, in his telling, the same prosecutor drove both cases. The government responds that the decision to prosecute belonged to the United States as a separate sovereign, whoever the individual prosecutors were. It also argues that no precedent makes any error here plain.

United States v. Taylor (No. 24-30668) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, argued August 5, 2026.