Most Prosecuting Attorneys charge with everything they can. Hoping to get to keep the greater charges and the court throw out the lesser charges.
Most Prosecuting Attorneys charge with everything they can. Hoping to get to keep the greater charges and the court throw out the lesser charges.
I agree with the above post. Assuming there is only one homicide victim, prosecutors will often charge more than one homicide offense, at least to be on the safe side, so that the jury will have different options--if the prosecution does not take this tact, it may be precluded from having the jury consider such a charge at trial. This is normally not a problem if the other homicide is truly a lesser included offense but better safe than sorry--nothing wrong with placing the defendant on notice. Of course, assuming there is only one victim, there can be only one sentence for whatever homicide of which he may be convicted.