How is stacking (i.e., overlapping crimes charges) different from double jeopardy (i.e., same offense)?
Could stacking be "cruel and unusual punishment" when it results in disproportionate punishments for a crime (say 100 year for a theft)?
Attorney Answers
3
John Kaman ·
One event can give rise to multiple charges. In a drug case for example if the defendant had a quantity of meth he could be charged with possession, possession for sale, transportation, etc. In the end, as Mr. Bogan says, he can be found guilty of all three but the punishments will run concurrently. There is no way to "stack" these charges so that the defendant gets the max for each charge.
0 upvotes
Kresta Daly ·
Stacking only occurs in certain classes of crimes, for example sex crimes where there is a specific statute that allows full term consecutive sentences for each county.
Lots of crimes can be charged in different ways but only punished once. Ie. 10851 and 459 can both charge a car theft.
Disproportionately high sentences have withstood lots of constitutional challenges. Long sentences might be cruel but unfortunately they are hardly unusual.
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