Dowling v. United States

In Dowling v. United States, 493 U.S. 342, 343-44, 348, 110 S. Ct. 668, 107 L. Ed. 2d 708 (1990) the Supreme Court established the admission of testimony about acquitted conduct is not barred categorically by the Double Jeopardy Clause or the Due Process Clause of the United States Constitution when such evidence is governed by a lesser standard than proof beyond a reasonable doubt. In Dowling, the Court suggested that collateral estoppel based on an earlier acquittal could depend on a case-by-case analysis that would require a defendant to prove, from the entire record, that "the issue whose relitigation he seeks to foreclose was actually decided in the first proceeding." Id. at 350.