stacked and Staggered

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida,


Is it legal for the states attorney to stack and stagger the charges so as to get more than one trial and more prison time?

Normal practice is to combine the charges and try all charges in one trial.

It's not illegal to schedule 2 trials; it's just (usually) a waste of taxpayer's money.
However, if there are multiple defendants on a particular charge, then it's probably easier to have 2 trials (too confusing to the jury to try multiple charges, multiple defendants).

It's up to the Prosecutor and their office's Policy & Procedures, as to how the charges are filed and tried.

When they tried Malvo for the sniper shootings, they only tried him for half of them the first time, so that if they lost, they could learn from their mistakes and try him again on the other shootings.

If you only want one trial, be sure to only commit one crime.

thedoctorisin said:

If you only want one trial, be sure to only commit one crime.

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If people only broke one law at a time, the majority of them would have never been caught.
From what I've seen, most criminals break three as a minimum. So the starting point is three and it goes up from there.

thedoctorisin said:

When they tried Malvo for the sniper shootings, they only tried him for half of them the first time, so that if they lost, they could learn from their mistakes and try him again on the other shootings..

Click to expand...

Actually, the major reason some of the Virginia prosecutors held off was to see if there was going to be clarification on the federal level as to whether the death penalty would be an option (there was an active case before the US Supreme Court on the matter).

Of course he was also up on charges in Maryland (where he was also subsequently convicted) and sentenced.

Since the death penalty was not an option and he was already sentenced to several consecutive "life without parole" terms in both states, they decided not to proceed on the remaining Virginia charges, nor has Louisiana, Alabama, and Arizona decided to bother to bring him for prosecution there.