Also known as: same act and transaction · same transaction test · same act
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
A unified course of criminal conduct in which multiple offenses occur without meaningful separation in time, place, or purpose.
Simone Sanders approached a locked construction gate and punched the guard to gain entry. Seconds later she brandished a knife and took his wallet. The initial punch and the subsequent taking formed one continuous episode at the same location with no break in events.
Serena Soto struck a victim during an argument and then seized both a ring from the victim's hand and a wallet from a nearby bench. The two property takings occurred in the same struggle yet involved separate items and distinct methods of acquisition.
Sebastian Santos was indicted on charges of assault and robbery arising from a single backstage confrontation at a concert venue. The indictment joined both counts because the punch and the demand for money occurred in immediate succession in the same narrow corridor.
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Stella Shapiro was tried for battery after an earlier conviction for robbery based on the same locker-room struggle in which she struck the victim and took his ring. The second prosecution was precluded because the offenses arose from one unbroken course of conduct.
Seth Shapiro deliberately diverted a rideshare van and slammed the door on a passenger's arm before demanding the passenger's phone. The single sequence of acts supplied the force element for robbery and demonstrated the required culpable state throughout the continuous transaction.
Solomon Silver was stopped by police who used excessive force during an arrest that began with a traffic violation and ended with an unlawful search of his vehicle. The entire sequence constituted one transaction supporting a single federal civil rights action.
Merger applies when the misdemeanor formed part of the conduct constituting the felony and both arose from the same act or transaction. The doctrine prevents multiple convictions for what amounts to a single integrated criminal episode.
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No. When the same act or series of acts forming a single transaction satisfies the elements of multiple felonies, none merges into the others and each remains legally distinct.
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Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 8(a) permits joinder when the offenses are of the same or similar character, are based on the same act or transaction, or are connected with or constitute parts of a common scheme or plan.
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Rule 8(b) allows two or more defendants to be charged together if they are alleged to have participated in the same act or transaction or in the same series of acts or transactions constituting an offense or offenses.
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…absolute separation. Rev. Stat. § 1024, 18 U. S. C. § 557, provides: “When there are several charges against any person for the same act or transaction, or for two or more acts or transactions connected together, or for two or more acts or transactions of the same class of crimes or offenses, which may be properly joined, instead of having…