Criminal Law & Procedure

Overview and Practice Tests

Criminal Procedure

Most criminal cases will adhere to the following common stages: arrest, plea bargain or criminal trial, and sentencing. Criminal cases often result in a criminal defendant accepting a plea bargain in lieu of going through a criminal trial.

Arrest

The very first step in the prosecution of a criminal often starts with law enforcement making an arrest. A police officer can make a valid arrest when they observe someone committing a crime or if the officer has probable cause to believe that the person has committed a crime. The police can also make an arrest authorized with a valid arrest warrant obtained by a judge after a finding of probable cause. The suspect then goes through the booking process, where they are fingerprinted and photographed, and is then placed into custody.

Criminal Trial

In a criminal trial, there are several different phases that lead up to the defendant being sentenced, which is the next stage. These phases include indictment, jury selection, opening statements, witness testimonies, cross-examination, closing arguments, jury instructions, jury deliberation, then the verdict of guilty or not guilty. Many cases end in a plea bargain instead of going to trial as a result of pretrial negotiations between the criminal defense attorney and the prosecutor. The criminal trial stages occur as follows:

• Indictment. After a defendant is arrested but before the criminal trial starts, a defendant is brought before a judge or grand jury and read the charges against. The defendant is asked to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty. At this point, the defendant may enter a guilty plea pursuant to a plea deal. If the defendant enters a plea of not guilty, the case will proceed to trial and jury selection will begin.

• Jury selection. During jury selection, each side will begin the process of picking the jury from a potential juror pool (usually a group of people called for jury duty). Each side will ask questions to the potential jurors to determine their competency to serve as a juror and may exercise certain “challenges” to excuse certain jurors. After this process is done, the selected jurors are sworn in as the jury for the criminal case.

• Opening statements. Opening statements are statements given by each side in a criminal trial before they begin the presentation of their case. Generally, the prosecution delivers their opening statements first, followed by the defense. Each side will present to the jury their overall case strategy and the evidence expected to be presented. They will conclude with the conclusion they hope their case will show to the jury.

• Witness testimonies. Each case is allowed to present witnesses to help present their case. There are lay witnesses, who are people who saw certain events and describes to the jury what he or she saw. An expert witness is a specialist in a field who testifies as to their expert opinion on their specialty area in the case (e.g., forensic specialists). Expert witnesses must be approved by the court before the case goes to trial. Finally, there are character witnesses. These are witnesses who testify about the character of the defendant, victim, or other person from their personal experience with or knowledge of the victim. Character witnesses are often used to attempt to discredit someone or to show good character for a defendant.

• Cross-examination. After the prosecution or the defense calls someone to testify, the other side has the opportunity to cross-examine them. This involves asking questions about the witness’s testimony, background related to the case, or any sort of bias, among other questions. The purpose is to try and get the witness to say something that is helpful to the cross-examiner’s case, or that will discredit the witness in any way.

• Closing arguments. This is similar to opening statements. Each side addresses the jury with a summary of their case and what conclusion they hope the jury will reach.

• Jury instructions and jury deliberation. The judge reads a set of instructions to the jury regarding what the Rules of Evidence and other necessary information. The jury then deliberates to decide on verdict in the criminal case.

• Verdict. Once the jury has reached a verdict, the verdict will be delivered to the judge, and the jury will read the verdict aloud in open court.

Sentencing

The final stage of the criminal procedure stages is the determination of the appropriate legal punishment for the person who committed the crime. Punishment will be decided by the sentencing judge, and range from fines to incarceration or probation. Factors that affect a criminal sentence include the defendant’s criminal history, the type of crime, whether there is a mandatory minimum sentence, or if there are mitigating or aggravating factors involved in the specific case. If a plea deal is negotiated, the term of probation or incarceration and amount of fines will be predetermined by the plea deal. Any plea deal will have to be signed off on by the defendant and approved by the judge.