In the case of Green v. United States in 1960, the U.S Supreme Court ruled that a defendant cannot be tried twice for the same offense in federal court following an appeal. The petitioner, Green, had been convicted of both arson and first-degree murder after setting fire to a building resulting in death. On appeal, his murder conviction was overturned due to lack of evidence but he was retried and again found guilty. He appealed this second verdict on grounds it violated his Fifth Amendment protection against double jeopardy - being prosecuted twice for substantially the same crime. The Supreme Court agreed with him by ruling 5-4 that retrying him did indeed constitute double jeopardy as he had already faced trial and sentencing for this charge once before.

In the dissenting opinion for Green v. United States, Justice Hugo Black argued that the majority's decision violated the Double Jeopardy Clause of the Fifth Amendment. He contended that when a defendant is acquitted on a greater charge (in this case, first-degree murder), he cannot be retried on any lesser charges related to it (second-degree murder). According to him, once an acquittal has been rendered by a jury or judge in favor of a defendant, it should serve as final judgment and not subject to review or reversal except under very limited circumstances. In his view, allowing such re-prosecution undermines fundamental principles of fairness and justice inherent in American jurisprudence system which protects individuals from being tried twice for same offense. Furthermore, he criticized the Court’s reliance on technicalities rather than focusing on constitutional protections against double jeopardy.