There are certain times in criminal defense where the prosecution will be barred from bringing charges against a criminal defendant even though the accused has never been charged in that jurisdiction. Specifically, section 111 of the Pennsylvania Crimes Code (Title 18) deals with this type of scenario. Assault Crimes This section is entitled: When prosecution barred by former prosecution in another jurisdiction. This section of the crimes code addresses the issue of when criminal conduct occurs in one criminal jurisdiction (such as Berks County), a prosecution in another jurisdiction (such as Chester County) shall be barred under certain circumstances. This blog will review several of those types of circumstances. You should seriously consider hiring an experienced and aggressive Chester County Criminal Lawyer if you believe that you are being prosecuted for a crime that should be barred. Regardless of the knowledge you may gain from this blog there is no substitute for hiring a good criminal defense lawyer.
Under section 111 dealing with Criminal Defense, the Prosecution is barred from bringing charges if the first prosecution resulted in an acquittal or in a conviction of the criminal defendant and the subsequent prosecution in another jurisdiction is based on the same conduct unless Double Jeopardy:
(i) the offense of which the defendant was formerly convicted and the new criminal charges each requires proof of a fact not required by the other; or
(ii) the second offense had not occurred when the former case was resolved.
The other defense that can arise in cases where defendants are charged in different jurisdictions (Counties) are whether the charges should have been joined in one prosecution since they were part of a continuing course of conduct or one criminal episode. An example of this is when a defendant goes on a burglary spree and burglarizes several different business in 3 hours which are also in 3 different jurisdictions.
