If you mean, uses the same Category Title, yes it stays the same. However, I just tested this and it doesn’t allow you to keep the same slug.
For example, let’s say these are my categories:
– Witnesses
– – John Smith
– People
– – John Smith
The names look the same, however, I noticed, it doesn’t allow both John Smith’s to have the same slug. For example, if the slug for John Smith under witnesses is “johnsmith”, the slug for the John Smith under People will be named something like “johnsmith-people”.
Alternatively, it sounds like Custom Post Types and Custom Taxonomies might best suit what you’re trying to do (E.g, have a “Witnesses” and another post type (maybe “Criminals”) and allow them to make use of a taxonomy called “People”?).