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Severance

By Baker Associates

Defendants in criminal cases often find themselves in the unfortunate situation of being tried for multiple offenses in the same trial. This may or may not be appropriate depending on the circumstances of the case, but being on trial for several offenses poses some substantial risks to the defendant. The primary risk that the defendant faces is being convicted for one or more offenses based on evidence presented for the purpose of proving other offenses. For example, if the defendant is simultaneously on trial for arson and kidnapping, the jury may hear disturbing evidence related to the kidnapping and become prejudiced against the defendant, thereby jeopardizing his chance at a fair trial for the offense of arson. Judges are very careful to instruct juries under such circumstances to consider each offense separately in light of the proof, but a risk such as the one described above is not one that a defendant wants to take unless he or she absolutely has to.continue to full post

Full post as published by Tennessee Criminal Lawyer Blog on July 21, 2010 (boomark / email).