Severance motions are motions where defense attorneys, like myself, try to sever one defendant from another to sever one case away from another. This is a strategic move in criminal defense, often used to protect the rights and interests of our clients.
Prosecutors, on the other hand, typically aim to consolidate cases for simultaneous trials. Over my extensive career, I've successfully handled numerous severance motions, accumulating a wealth of experience and expertise in this area.
Argument of Prejudice of Client's Case
When trying to sever defendants, you will have to mount an argument that says that having this defendant with my client will prejudice my client's case. Maybe that defendant has a bunch of other instances tagging along with him, and those cases will make both defendants look bad, so why do I want to have this defendant with me?
Another argument would be that having this other defendant would be way too time-consuming. There's too much evidence related to this other defendant, so there's no way I want this defendant with me because we'll be sitting in court for two to three weeks, whereas if you just tried me alone, it would be a three or four-day trial.
One of the better arguments that a lot of times works to sever two defendants is – let's say the other defendant made a statement that hurts both you and them, but that statement is hearsay as to you and can't come in unless the other defendant testifies and it's unlikely the other defendant is going to testify – now we have a problem.
Now you have a good argument to be severed away from this guy because I don't want his statement coming in against me. It's hearsay. It can go against him as an admission, but it won't against me.
So, depending on the circumstances and the number of statements made, the judge will grant that severance and let the two cases be tried separately.
Or, I've seen them impanel two juries, and both juries sit there and listen to the evidence as to both; this way, the prosecutors don't have to put on two cases. They can put on one case to two juries, and when it comes time for the statement to go by the co-defendant, the jury for you would be dismissed and wouldn't hear that statement.
That way, that jury wouldn't consider that statement against you. So, that's another way to effectively deal with statements by co-defendants and not having to sever the case in a Los Angeles court.
Grounds To Be Able To Sever A Case
One valid ground for severance is the potential prejudice to a defendant when tried alongside others. The core principle here is fairness, ensuring that each defendant receives a just and impartial trial.
If, on the other hand, the prosecutors can mount the argument that it's not going to prejudice the other defendant – it might take longer – but this way, the court doesn't have to do multiple trials on the same subject matter, bringing in the same witnesses, wasting court time and inconveniencing the witnesses.
The courts are always going to side with the judicial economy, which refers to the efficient use of court resources, doing the cases together unless the defense can come up with a good argument why somehow it will have some judicial or spill-over effect if the severance is not granted.
Example of a Five-Defendant Case
I recently did a case where I filed a double severance motion. One, I wanted to sever my client away from five other defendants because the other five defendants had a bunch of issues, statements that they made, evidence that was going to come in against them, gang-affiliated evidence – and that was all going to hurt my client and prejudice him.
I also wanted to sever separate cases. The prosecutors were trying to try my client on three different cases, all occurring at other times, and that's where you start to get into the spill-over effect, to be able to say, listen, you can't just mount a bunch of cases against the guy and hopes that one of them sticks.
If you have a good case against them, try it by itself, and if you have to try one, two, or three cases separately, then so be it. Still, it's unfair to have a bunch of cases against one guy that didn't co-occur, so the jury says this guy must be guilty of something because he has two or three cases against him. How would he have these two or three cases against him if he wasn't guilty of something?
That's not fair. That will have a spill-over effect, and that would be an excellent argument to separate cases against one defendant away from each other and have the prosecutors try those cases separately.
If you're facing a severance issue in one of the Los Angeles country courts, rest assured that I bring 25 years of experience to the table. I invite you to come in for a consultation, where we'll thoroughly review your case and I'll provide you with a fair assessment of your severance motion's likelihood of being granted or denied by the judge.
