Antecedents are the life history and previous
convictions of a
defendant
In court proceedings, a defendant is a person or object who is the party either accused of committing a crime in criminal prosecution or against whom some type of civil relief is being sought in a civil case.
Terminology varies from one jurisdic ...
in a
criminal
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Can ...
case. They are colloquially known as "previous convictions" (or simply "previous") in the
United Kingdom and "prior convictions" (or simply "priors") in the
United States and
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
.
When a defendant is being
sentenced
Sentenced was a Finnish gothic metal band that played melodic death metal in their early years. The band formed in 1989 in the town of Muhos and broke up in 2005.
History
Early years (1988–1991)
Sentenced started in 1988 as Deformity and c ...
for a
crime, the court will be told antecedents. This information is usually considered by the judge/magistrate in deciding the sentence the defendant will receive. If a defendant pleads "
not guilty", previous convictions are not usually made known to the jury during the trial, to prevent prejudice against the defendant, but it is argued if the defendant has previous convictions for similar types of offense, this should be part of the evidence given at the trial.
Criminal law
Legal terminology
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