A lesser included offense is an offense that shares some but not all of the elements of a serious crime. An example would be the elements that make up murder the lesser offense of murder would be voluntary manslaughter. What this means is a crime like rape cannot not be committed without first committing the lesser offense of assault. (Wright 2013)
How the courts determine whether a crime is a lesser included offense is by when a crime such as rape is committed but the court cannot prove the crime had been committed, the lesser offense that would be included in a rape would be used to charge the suspect. (Wright 2013) An example of this would be that an individual had committed the crime of rape but the prosecution nor the courts did not …show more content…
The courts will consider the option to merge or combine several charges into one single charge. (Wright 2013) The merger doctrine states that when a defendant may only have to serve one sentence for one crime instead of if that person serving multiple sentences for multiple crimes for the same act. In the United States our Constitution under the 5th Amendment there is a provision that states that a person cannot be tried, convicted or sentence for the same criminal act twice. It is known as Double Jeopardy, an example would be if you were charged, convicted and serving a sentence for killing John Doe but it turned out John Doe was still alive and you get out of prison and actually find him and kill him you couldn’t be tried for that crime twice. (Wright 2013) In order to avoid any problems of double jeopardy the merger doctrine was put into place. In each state it’s up to that states laws and federal laws to decide what crimes can be merged. The general rule is any lesser offense can be merged with a more serious one. An example is theft is the lesser of an offense than robbery so if someone robs a convenience store by stealing money while using a gun then the theft of property that occurred would be the lesser offense to the robbery. (Wright
How the courts determine whether a crime is a lesser included offense is by when a crime such as rape is committed but the court cannot prove the crime had been committed, the lesser offense that would be included in a rape would be used to charge the suspect. (Wright 2013) An example of this would be that an individual had committed the crime of rape but the prosecution nor the courts did not …show more content…
The courts will consider the option to merge or combine several charges into one single charge. (Wright 2013) The merger doctrine states that when a defendant may only have to serve one sentence for one crime instead of if that person serving multiple sentences for multiple crimes for the same act. In the United States our Constitution under the 5th Amendment there is a provision that states that a person cannot be tried, convicted or sentence for the same criminal act twice. It is known as Double Jeopardy, an example would be if you were charged, convicted and serving a sentence for killing John Doe but it turned out John Doe was still alive and you get out of prison and actually find him and kill him you couldn’t be tried for that crime twice. (Wright 2013) In order to avoid any problems of double jeopardy the merger doctrine was put into place. In each state it’s up to that states laws and federal laws to decide what crimes can be merged. The general rule is any lesser offense can be merged with a more serious one. An example is theft is the lesser of an offense than robbery so if someone robs a convenience store by stealing money while using a gun then the theft of property that occurred would be the lesser offense to the robbery. (Wright