- ARREST:
Most people are arrested by a police officer at "the scene of the crime." The arresting officer must have what the law defines as probable cause that a crime was committed to arrest anyone. In some cases an arrest warrant is obtained from a judge and then the person is arrested on the warrant. In some cases, the arresting officer will take the person into custody and hold them in jail until an arrest warrant is obtained. "Probable cause" is not a very high standard for the arresting officer to meet. Quite often, judges will sign an arrest warrant based solely on the word of the arresting officer that a person violated the law.
- GETTING OUT OF JAIL:
Once a person is in jail and has been booked in (usually very slowly by the deputies and jailers -- that is because they believe that the longer that you stay in jail, the more they can of deter a person from ever committing a crime again and because they don't generally care about getting you out anyway, after all, they are not the ones that are in the cell -- you are), they usually have the right to try and get out of jail. Some crimes require that a bond be set by a Superior Court judge only (these are serious felonies). The following are some (but not necessarily all) of the ways that a person can get out of jail:
(a) Hire a Bonding Company:
Bonding companies are paid 12 to 15% of the face amount of the bond (depending on the facts of your case) as their fee to get you out. They have to give the jailer a written assurance that if you don't show up in court, they will pay the whole bond amount. Some bonding companies will not post the bond for a person if they think that the person may not ever show up in court (usually when a person is not living locally or has nothing to lose by not showing up in court). Some bonding companies will require that the person in jail give them what is called "collateral" for the bond and that is extra money (over the 12 to 15% fee) that they will keep to help insure that the person actually shows up in court. This "collateral" is fully refundable after the conclusion of the case.
(b) Post a Cash (or Credit Card) Bond:
Some people are able to just give the jailer the full amount of the bond money in cash or by credit card. Some people have a (true) friend come to the jail and pay the full amount of the bond to the jailer. All of this money is refundable after the case is concluded, except that a "surcharge" is tacked into the bond amount, which the jailer gets to keep.
(c) Post a Property Bond:
Some people are lucky enough to have a (true) friend or loved one post the deed to their house as a bond. This is hard to do because the person must have plenty of equity in their house (usually double the face amount of the bond) to use the deed as a bond and there are special rules that apply to this procedure, which are sometimes hard to comply with.
(d) "Own Recognizance Bond":
Once a person has been in jail long enough, they are brought before a judge and if they pose no risk of flight and meet other requirements, then the judge may be nice enough to just let them out without posting any money. Different counties have different names for this, such as "sign own bond," or "pretrial bond," etc.
- FIRST APPEARANCE HEARINGS:
If a person has not bonded out of jail soon enough, then they are brought before a judge for a hearing to, among other things, establish whether or not the arresting officer had enough "probable cause" to arrest the person. If the person was arrested with a warrant, the hearing must be held within 72 hours of the date that they were arrested, if they were arrested without a warrant, then a hearing must be held within 48 hours after the date they were arrested. If a person has bonded out of jail, then they have waived the right to have a probable cause hearing.
- THE ARRAIGNMENT:
After the prosecutor drafts an accusation (in all misdemeanor cases and in some felony cases) or after the Grand Jury hands down an indictment (in most felony cases), then the case gets set down for an arraignment and placed on a calendar before a judge. Some (mostly traffic) cases are prosecuted on the citation issued by the arresting officer and the arraignment date is placed on the citation. The arraignment is the formal proceeding that is usually (but not always) the first formal appearance required of the accused. The purpose of this hearing is for the accused to plead guilty or not guilty to the charges. The arraignment is not the same as a trial and the officers or other witnesses are usually not required to appear. If the accused enters a plea of not guilty (which is normally the best thing to do), the case will be set down for a trial, either before a jury or before a judge sitting without a jury. Most cases are set down initially for a jury trial, which can be converted to a non jury trial later (once a person "waives jury" they usually cannot get a jury trial later). All felonies are handled in the Superior Court of the county in which the crime occurred, and most misdemeanors are handled in lower courts, such as traffic courts, recorder's courts, state courts and even probate courts. One important rule --- pre-trial motions should be filed at or before a person's arraignment, so it is best to hire an attorney well before your arraignment date, so that he or she can prepare and file these motions for you.
- THE TRIAL:
You can have a bench trial, which is with only the judge presiding, or a trial before a jury. Misdemeanor cases are tried before 6 jurors and felony cases are tried before 12 jurors. There are numerous hours involved in the preparation for, and the actual trial, of a case. One of the most important aspects of the trial of a criminal case is the filing and arguing of pre-trail motions. Numerous motions can be filed in a particular case. Most of these are discovery motions that require the prosecutor to give me information about your case. Other important motions can be filed to ask the court to keep the jury from hearing evidence in your case -- such as an alcohol test, or statements that you made to the arresting officer. Once all motions have been argued and other pre-trial matters resolved, the trial begins. It can be a long process that entails long waiting periods just to get reached on the court's calendar. Your case is not the only one that is going to trial. Jury trials are especially time consuming and the typical misdemeanor jury trial can last at least three full days. Usually, the judge will put your case "on call," which means that, when your case is reached, the judge's office will call you in (usually for the next morning). If a person has hired an attorney (which they definitely should), the judge's office will contact the attorney regarding when the case will go forward.
- ACQUITTAL OR SENTENCING:
If your case goes to trial and we win
a verdict of acquittal, then the accused is free to go and has been
found not guilty by the judge or the jury. The bond money posted is
refunded and the record is made to reflect the fact that the accused
was found not guilty. No conviction is on the record of the accused.
Should the accused be found (or plead) guilty of the charges, then
the judge will impose a sentence, which can include a fine, jail
time, community service, or even result in the suspension of the defendant's
driver's license. A conviction is then placed on the record of the
convicted person. If the accused lost at trial, then that verdict can
be appealed to a higher court.
- APPEAL:
Once a verdict is handed down by the jury or judge in a case, the defendant has a right to appeal the verdict. The defendant must have grounds to appeal a verdict. The usual grounds for appeal are that the judge made some sort of legal error during the trial, or that there simply was not enough evidence to uphold the verdict. The State (prosecution) never has a right to appeal a verdict (but they do have a right to appeal the judge's granting of a defendant's motion to suppress). Appellate procedure is very complex and an attorney well versed in appellate procedure should be retained to handle the appeal of a criminal case.
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