ABSTRACT
An experiment was conducted to determine the possible prejudicial effect of joining two similar criminal offenses in one trial, as compared to severing those offenses into separate trials. Levels of evidence (clear case for the prosecution, or a close case), trial mode (severed, combined with a clear or a close case), and position of case presentation in the joined trial (first or second) were combined in two 2 × 3 × 2 designs. The results indicated that clear cases received more guilty verdicts than close cases; joined trials obtained more guilty verdicts than severed trials; and first cases in joined trials received higher guilt scores than their severed counterparts or their joined counterparts presented second. The position effect seemed particularly strong when a close case was presented first and combined with a clear case in a joined trial.
