Background
In 1935, Frank Palka (whose name was misspelled as Palko in Court documents), a Connecticut resident, broke into a local music store and stole a phonograph, proceeded to flee on foot, and when cornered by law enforcement, killed two police officers and made his escape. He was captured a month later.
Palko had been charged with first-degree murder but was instead convicted of the lesser offense of second-degree murder and given a sentence of life imprisonment. Prosecutors appealed per Connecticut law and won a new trial, in which Palko was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. Palko appealed, arguing that the Fifth Amendment protection against double jeopardy applied to state governments through the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The court had previously held in the Slaughterhouse cases that the protections of the Bill of Rights should not be applied to the states under the Privileges or Immunities clause, but Palko held that since the infringed right fell under a due process protection, Connecticut still acted in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Read more about this topic: Palko V. Connecticut
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