Thats what I thought. I initially just thought this as the law being dumb, but I decided to go ahead and try to look into it a little. All the legal resources I found don’t explain the confusing ruling to a layman. I found a good answer on reddit from this thread:
https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/anl2cz/til_that_in_1931_a_man_stole_an_airplane_but_was/
The thing is that he was charged and convicted of a violation of the National Motor Vehicle Theft Act. The appellate court reversed the decision. You can’t try him again because of the prohibition against double jeopardy
I guess that makes sense. Theres a bunch of legal discussion in there. However, no one seems to fully disagree that he could’ve been charged for just stealing or larceny or something.