Antecedent (law)

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Antecedents are the life history and previous convictions of a defendant in a criminal 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.

When a defendant is being sentenced 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^{[by whom?]} if the defendant has previous convictions for similar types of offense, this should be part of the evidence given at the trial.

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