Legal Definitions - extraneous offense

An extraneous offense refers to a wrongful act or crime committed by an individual that is *not* the specific offense for which they are currently being tried or prosecuted. While it is a separate incident, evidence of an extraneous offense may sometimes be introduced in court for very limited and specific purposes, such as to demonstrate motive, intent, a common plan, identity, or absence of mistake, rather than to prove the person committed the current crime simply because they committed a past one.

Here are some examples illustrating this concept:

• Example 1: Showing Intent in a Fraud Case

  Imagine a defendant is on trial for defrauding an investor by selling them shares in a non-existent company. The prosecution might introduce evidence that the same defendant previously defrauded two other individuals using a very similar scheme involving different fake companies. These prior acts are extraneous offenses because they are not the current charge. However, they are introduced not to suggest "because they did it before, they must have done it again," but to demonstrate that the defendant's actions in the current case were intentional and part of a deliberate pattern of fraud, rather than an accidental misrepresentation or a misunderstanding.

• Example 2: Establishing Identity in a Robbery Case

  Consider a defendant accused of robbing a convenience store where the robber wore a distinctive, custom-made mask and left a unique, hand-drawn symbol at the scene. The prosecution might present evidence that the same defendant committed another convenience store robbery six months prior, using an identical custom-made mask and leaving the exact same unique symbol. This previous robbery is an extraneous offense. It is used here to help establish the identity of the defendant as the perpetrator of the *current* robbery, due to the highly specific and unusual similarities between the two crimes, which suggest a common perpetrator.

• Example 3: Demonstrating a Common Plan in a Drug Manufacturing Case

  Suppose a defendant is on trial for manufacturing illegal narcotics found in their rented storage unit. The prosecution could introduce evidence that, a year earlier, the defendant was found with similar drug manufacturing equipment and precursor chemicals at a different, abandoned warehouse, even though they were never formally charged for that specific incident. This prior discovery constitutes an extraneous offense. It helps to establish a pattern or a common scheme, suggesting that the current discovery of manufacturing equipment in the storage unit is part of an ongoing, intentional criminal enterprise, rather than an isolated or accidental possession of materials.