Its been a little while, and you as always have been so kind with your time. I have yet another question. Why has Ray Clark not been charged with crimes related to desecrating and hiding of Annie Les body, cleaning up of the crime scene, lying to the police, attempting to conceal evidence, etc… Are these not also criminal offenses on top of the brutal murder charges? Are there no applicable charges that could be levied against him? Thanks again.

Thank you for your continued interest in this topic.

I don’t know where my original response to your question of March 16 went. I must have accidentally deleted it while deleting the many spam comments I receive. I recall I said something about Clark’s family not having to worry about being charged with obstructing justice or being an accessory to the crime after the fact unless they took active measures to destroy evidence or to prevent his arrest.

The same should be true for hindering the prosecution. While I am not familiar with Connecticut law, “Hindering Apprehension or Prosecution” in Pennsylvania is roughly defined as being actively involved in harboring or concealing the suspect, concealing or destroying evidence, warning the suspect of impending discovery or apprehension, or providing false information to a law enforcement officer. For example, I once defended a woman who was charged with this offense for lying to the police officers who showed up at the door to arrest her son and then yelling for her son to run out the back door.

Could you talk a little about the concept of hindering the prosecution, and how common it is in murder cases? How it might apply to Annie Le’s case?
Thanks!

I had yet another follow up question concerning Annie Le’s murder case. My question involves the family of Ray Clark and what crimes they possible committed in the support of Ray Clark for the few days after the murder but before Annie’s body was discovered. Lets say for the sake of argument some family members knew Ray was involved in Annie’s death, noticed he had changed clothes, noticed defensive wounds on his body, and helped calm him after the event when he was visibly distressed. Is it a crime to assist a loved one after a crime, or to fail to notify police if you suspect a loved one was involved in something as serous as a murder? Do you believe a family has any moral obligation, if not legal obligation, to notify police under such circumstances? As always, thanks for your time.

You are right about the prosecution wanting to keep its options open. Generally, the prosecution will throw every possible charge at the defendant, hoping to get as many of the charges as possible to stick. The prosecution can also use some of the extra charges for leverage during plea bargaining.

The defendant can be tried on all the charges. Whether or not the defendant can be found guilty and sentenced on offenses depends on what is called the Blockburger test. If one charge contains an element that another charge does not, then the two charges are considered separate. If the charges contain the same elements, then the offenses would “merge” for sentencing purposes (that is, you would only be sentenced on the one charge).

Alternatively, it is possible for one offense to be included as a lesser included offense of another. In this case, the defendant, if convicted of both charges, would only be sentenced on the more serious charge. For example, theft is generally defined as the taking of property from another with intent to deprive. Robbery contains the exact same elements except that force is also involved. Thus, theft is a lesser included offense of robbery.

I appreciate your interest and your questions.

Kidnapping was originally defined at common law as the forcible asportation of the victim to another country. The asportation doesn’t need to be so extensive under modern law. So yes, under the circumstances you describe, that could be kidnapping.