Joinder and Severance of Defendants
Two or more D’s charged with same offense or with offenses arising out of the same course of conduct
Problem: i. “spillover” taking evidence from one D and applying to another
ii. may consider greater evidence against one # to use as culpability for all
Schaffer – allowed to stay joined even though the conspiracy count fell; held no prejudice; court points out still need evidence for each individual transaction and defendant
Antagonistic defenses are even ok … feds really like to try D’s together!
Confessions
Bruton – a co-defendant’s confession naming other D as participant is too prejudicial, risk jury can’t separate that out (so can either redact references to other D or hold separate trials)
Gray – redacted references to others in confession were still obvious … in essence, was an admission of a confession and USSC said too prejudicial
We have located some similar legal questions and legal question categories. Check out these challenging questions that askquestions about and are similar to What do you mean by Joinder and Severance of Defendants?. Also, we have included a list of some of our more popular legal question categories. These categories are based on what everyone is asking and answering.
What's Your Answer to "What do you mean by Joinder and Severance of Defendants?"