Trial

After the preliminary hearing and assuming that no plea negotiations or dismissal occurs, the next step in a criminal case is the trial. A trial is a scary experience in which the defendant places their future in the hands of 12 unknown individuals (if a jury trial) or in the judges hands (bench trial).

A trial has a number of different parts. First is a number of legal determinations, for example what evidence can and cannot be presented to the court, who are going to be witnesses, what jury instructions are going to be used, etc. The first part that you as a defendant will likely see is the jury selection. This is also called vior dire. Both the prosecution and the defense will ask a series of questions to determine if a particular juror can stay or if they will be dismissed from the jury pool. Once all the jurors are picked including any alternates the trial is ready to begin.

The prosecution is the first side to present the case. At this point all of the evidence that the prosecution has against you will be presented. The defense attorney will be able to cross-examine and attack the credibility of the various pieces of evidence or witnesses. After the prosecution rests their case the defense has the opportunity to present their case. Here the prosecution gets the chance to attack the credibility and evidence put forward by the defense.

Once the defense has finished their side of the story, both sides present their closing arguments. After this the jury is read the instructions and asked to make a determination on guilt. The jury will deliberate for however long it takes them to come to a conclusion. Of course the jury may be unable to come to a conclusion and a hung jury could be declared. Other possibilities include a mistrial for tapering with the jury or the juror misconduct. However, generally once the jury determines guilt or innocence the trial is over except for the sentencing. Depending if the trial was bifurcated (broken into two parts) the sentencing could occur right after the trial or a new trial could be held to determine the sentence.