State v. Stevens’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 7 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Code of Criminal Procedure Article 495.1 permits the Trial Court to grant a severance of offenses which have been properly joined in the same indictment upon a showing of prejudice to the defendant. The Trial Court’s ruling on a motion to sever is subject to appellate review under an abuse of discretion standard. State v. Celestine, 452 So.2d 676 (La.1984). When, as in this case, offenses are joined under Article 493 because they are “of the same or similar character” and the defense argues prejudice, the first inquiry in reviewing the denial of a severance is to determine whether evidence of each offense would have been admissible under the Prieur standard at the separate trial of the other. State v. Carter, 352 So.2d 607 (La.1977); State v. Washington, 386 So.2d 1368 (La.1980). Treating, as does defense counsel, the four counts as to the first victim as one offense and the counts as to the second victim as another offense, we believe evidence of either “offense” would have been admissible at a separate trial of the other. Nonetheless, this finding is not the sole basis for our holding that Stevens was not entitled to a severance. Even if the Prieur standard is not deemed satisfied, the offenses need not be severed unless the defendant is prejudiced by the joinder of the offenses for one trial. There is no prejudice “when the evidence of each offense is relatively simple and distinct” so that the “jury can easily keep the evidence of each offense separate in its deliberation”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage
   e.g. 557 So. 2d 393 - State v. Smith