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That really seems silly. Presumably you guys have something like rules for the competition of criminal norms, and how acts which violate different norms should be punished. If A shoots B, you might sentence them for first degree murder, instead of adding murder 1, murder 2, manslaughter, assault with a dangerous weapon, assault, property damage, reckless discharge of a firearm, and noise disturbance.
I suppose that the only reason why a prosecutor would charge two different crimes where one encompasses the other would be that they were unsure if they could get a conviction on the more serious offense. "We are not sure if we can convince the jury of intent to distribute, so let's add simple possession just so we get something."
OTOH, reaching a common verdict may more be about everyone saving face than the verdict making any sense. If juror A insists on intent and juror B insists on acquittal on something and you have no (possibly mildly autistic) juror C who insists on the verdict being self-consistent, it seems like a way to make everyone happy.
Replying to this comment, but I am also addressing @cjet79 's post below because they are similar and my answer should either answer both, or at least open the door for more precise questions.
The answer as to why multiple charges are filed is both for proof reasons and for plea reasons.
As you speculated, if a man shoots another man the prosecutor will charge Murder, Manslaughter, Aggravated Batter/Assault with a Firearm, Agg Discharge (probably not reckless discharge because at least in midwest states those laws wouldn't apply to an intentional discharge at a person and charging both can be self defeating), etc. In fact, there will typically be dozens of charges of murder alone because some will contain enhanced sentencing language, and some will contain different theories of mens rea such as knowingly vs. purposely vs. indifferently etc.
But also those are included for plea reasons. Lets say your top charge is Murder 1st Degree, by discharge of a firearm. Where I live, the minimum sentence would be 45 years with 10 additional years of whats called MSR, which is just super fancy strict parole. But, you would also include a regular 1st degree murder charge which has a minimum of 20 years. Now, if you are in a courtroom in Chicago, you realistically as a prosecutor have to pick which murder hills to die on. Getting a conviction on a plea to 30 years on the 1st Degree Murder charge without the gun enhancements is a nice thing to do once in a while, because otherwise you are constantly picking murder juries and then putting on week-long murder trials. And, thats just the murders, you have no time for the armed robbers, hijackers, sex crimes, etc. Not to mention your thieves, drug dealers, drug users, etc.
This pattern is particularly useful for some sorts of crimes where a gun or other weapon is not actually recovered, but is alleged to be used in a crime, like a Carjacking. Carjacking with a gun in IL is a Class X felony carrying 6-30 years. But, you can't always prove it was a real gun, right? Well Carjacking where you indicate you were armed is a Class 1 which is 4-15. If there is a jury trial you present both charges and say, "hey if you think the carjacking happened like our witness says, he's guilty, but if you don't think our witness has proved beyond reasonable doubt that the gun wasn't a painted toy, he's still guilty, just of a lesser, but still quite serious, offense."
As for other posters speculating about double jeopardy with multiplicative charging, I have never heard of that argument getting close to winning at any significant appeals court in any state. It simply is a profoundly silly argument. There won't be two juries and two judges hearing each charge. Its one jury and one judge hearing one trial. And if convicted the cumulative convictions out of a single act are served concurrently, so its not like if you shoot a guy and are convicted of all 10 murder counts alleged that you now are a 10x convicted murderer and serve 10 sentences. You are just sentenced on the most serious charge and all the others follow (of course this is different if you kill 2 people at once, or as some felons like to do, were caught with 2 illegal firearms, those can often times be sentenced consecutively as they are separate offenses).
I will say, however, that everything I wrote only really applies to state and local prosecutors offices, which do handle the majority of crimes committed. The feds get to pick their cases and spend more time on a single fraud case than most state prosecutors would on multiple murder or sex crimes cases (which are typically the longest trials in state courts). So overcharging does happen much more often with that level of prosecution. But for some prosecutors in Chicago or Milwaukee or Indianapolis? Haha no, they charge what they think fits, and then the defendant often gets a very generous deal on one of the lesser included offenses. Its more like undercharging, if we are being pedantic. But to change that reality you would need to double the size of every PD, triple the number of prosecutors, and triple the number of judges, while also tripling the jury duty burden on your citizens.
TLDR? I guess its that multiple charges for one crime typically makes a lot of sense.
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