Legal Question in Criminal Law in California

Doctrine preventing lesser charges in cases of increasingly serious charges

I'd heard that there is a legal doctrine which goes thus:

Suppose you'd murdered someone. In order to commit the murder, you would first had to have committed an assault, then a battery, then an aggravated assault, then an aggravated battery, then an attempted murder, and then the murder itself.

But, when you are charged with the crime, I'd heard you can ONLY be charged with the one which is the most serious (i.e., just the murder, and not all of the crimes).

So- my question is: is this actually true, and if so, what is the name of the legal doctrine that makes it so?

(BTW- haven't murdered anybody- just trying to find the doctrine...)


Asked on 1/28/09, 6:04 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Edward Hoffman Law Offices of Edward A. Hoffman

Re: Doctrine preventing lesser charges in cases of increasingly serious charges

It's called the merger doctrine, and it doesn't work quite the way you describe. The prosecutor can bring charges for lesser included offenses and need not charge the most serious crime available (for instance, when the evidence for the additional element is weak). However, the defendant can only be *convicted* of one of the charges. Any lesser included offenses of which he is also found guilty would merge into the greater offense.

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Answered on 1/28/09, 6:10 pm


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