Court Opinion

ID: 9583222
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:36:05.049166+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:38:53.301339
License: Public Domain

SABERS, Justice
(concurring in part and concurring in result in part).
I concur in all respects except as to severance, in which I concur in result. The burden of justifying the fairness of a joint trial should be upon the party requesting the joint trial. However, jointly tried defendants should not get a new trial simply because they urge defenses antagonistic to each other. Their defenses must be irreconcilable, i.e., mutually exclusive; if the jury believes one they must disbelieve the other. Here, the jury did not believe either one because they convicted both. In view of the substantial prosecution evidence here, the jury could reasonably disbelieve *550both defenses. Therefore, their defenses were not irreconcilable and the State established that the defendants received a fair trial.