PT9M20S
“When you're charged with a criminal offense it can be either a misdemeanor charge, a felony charge, or a petty offense. Petty offenses are things like jaywalking, minor traffic tickets, even urinating in public is a petty offense, which is great. If you're charged with a petty offense the question of whether or not you're entitled to a jury trial relates to whether or not that potential offense carries the possibility of jail time. If you are facing a potential jail sentence, then you qualify for a jury trail.”
“let's say, for example, you have a minor traffic ticket in municipal court. You can qualify, a minor traffic ticket let's say a careless driving, you can qualify because you have the potential of going to jail from anywhere from 10 to 90 days according to the statue. So you do qualify for a jury trial. But jury trials in municipal court are a little bit different. You can only have three people on your jury panel at a municipal jury trial, or you can have what's called a bench trial and that's where the judge actually hears your case.”
“A bench trial you can actually have at any level of any criminal offense. So, misdemeanors, petty offenses, felonies, you can always just have the judge sit and listen to your case instead of having a whole jury. That's really a question that you and your attorney need to flush out and decide strategically what the best option is for you.”
“Generally, though, with misdemeanors and felony levels we're gonna be looking at having a jury trial. The main differences between misdemeanor and felony trials is that for a misdemeanor you're entitled to a panel of six jurists and for a felony you're entitled to a panel of 12.”
“So let's take a basic DUI case for example. When you're preparing for this with your attorney your attorney's gonna go over the facts of the case. They'll go over the discovery with you, they'll talk to you about what they're looking at as far as issues in the case. And generally it's pretty cut and dry. You're gonna be going in on the morning of trial. Here in El Paso County, our trials usually start somewhere between 8:30 and nine in misdemeanor court.”
“it's your right, of course, to remain silent you don't have to testify you don't have to do anything in this case. And under the law, your attorney doesn't have to do anything either because you are presumed innocent until they actually prove you guilty, but if you have an attorney that's worth anything at all they're gonna be working real hard for you.”
“Generally, court decorum requires that the person who's accused of a crime sit further away from the jury and the DA actually sit closer to the jury. So, let's say you go in and the jury panel's over here to the left, the district attorneys will be sitting here, and then the defendant and their attorney will be sitting to the opposite side. And then you have the judge in front of you.”
“Sometimes the district attorneys have what's called an advisory witness. On DUIs like the example we're using here, an advisory witness is someone who's sitting with them helping them. So in DUI cases it's usually the DUI officer. Some DAs do it, some don't it's a matter of their own personal preference. The judge usually allows that though. The officer, or the advisory witness doesn't get to ask any questions, they're just there to help the attorney out keep things organized and help them throughout the jury process.”
“Now, during this process, on a misdemeanor level you're going to be going through this process called voir dire, it's jury selection. At a felony level, you're looking to have 12 different people impaneled on your jury. At a DUI or misdemeanor level, a DUI so long as it's a misdemeanor DUI, you're gonna look for six people to be on your panel.”
“this is the process that is the most important part, in my opinion, of a jury trail. Selecting the jury. When you have a jury come in, you have all the potential panelists for, let's say a DUI you have maybe 25, 30 people called in for jury selection. On a felony charge, say assault of some kind, you can have possibly 40 to 60 people. On a sex assault case, that's more serious, you could have hundreds of people called in for this job.”
“With the misdemeanor level you have them called in they usually are gonna be sitting in the court room and then you're gonna have a few in the box there. And it's the attorney's jobs to cull through these potential jurors to figure out who the best juror is for this case. If you want a little bit more information on voir dire and the full process, I have another video that goes more fully in depth as to what's going on in that process. But the general issue that you're looking at is the DA gets to question the people and the defense attorney gets to question them, and then everyone makes selections as to who sits on the jury.”
“When you have your jury selected then you have opening statements. Each attorney gets to get up and make opening statements. The DA always gets to go first, then the defense attorney. Then you have the presentation of evidence. It's the DA's job to present all the evidence they think they need to prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt. And this is where it's very, very important that your attorney is paying attention and listening. Because there are specific elements that the DA's have to prove in order to get over what I call halftime.”
“So they'll present their entire case. They lay it all out and then they're done and they rest. You'll see this in movies where its says the people rest At that point in time, if the DA has failed to prove all of the information necessary to potentially have a jury find you guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, it is your attorney's job to stand up and make a motion for what's called a judgment of acquittal. Now, it's not always necessary, so if the DA has proven everything beyond a reasonable doubt potentially, then you don't need to make this motion. But if they're missing something the defense attorney should get up and ask for a judgment of acquittal.”
“After that halftime motion is made, then the defense has the opportunity to present any evidence. Now during this time in a DUI, like I said, a lot of the times you're not gonna have very much information to present in your defense, and you're not required to. You're considered innocent until proven guilty otherwise. So, the defense then presents their evidence if they have any and they rest. At that time the judge is going to go over jury instructions with the jury and this is an incredibly boring process just so you're aware. The judge is going to read from a book verbatim read the jury instructions to the jury. The jury's required to follow those instructions only.”
“After jury instructions are read, then the final opportunity comes for attorneys to make final statements. Otherwise known as closing arguments. The district attorney will get up they make their closing argument and then we have our chance to make our closing argument. Since the presumption and the burden of proof is on the DA, they then get the chance to make what's called a rebuttal closing. This is where it's slightly unfair and frustrating for us because the DA gets the chance to talk again.”
“They get to get up and rebut whatever we say. And it's because the burden of proof is on them. So just be aware, if you're sitting there with your attorney and then the DA gets to talk again, we don't get to talk again. We get one shot at the apple. But, as long as you have a good attorney, one shot is all you need.”
“After that, the judge will tell the jury that it's now their time and they get to take the case back and review all the facts of the case and make a determination. So then is the waiting period. A lot of the times you can't predict how long a jury's gonna be out. I've seen juries be out anywhere from a few minutes, to hours, to days. It really depends on the specific people on the jury, the charges, and how involved they get with it. But after that happens the jury will let the judge know they've reached a verdict, everyone will come back to the court room, the jury will give their verdict to the judge, and the judge will announce whether they have found the person who's been accused either guilty or not guilty.”
“When you're charged with a criminal offense it can be either a misdemeanor charge, a felony charge, or a petty offense.”
“The main differences between misdemeanor and felony trials is that for a misdemeanor you're entitled to a panel of six jurists and for a felony you're entitled to a panel of 12.”
“but this is the process that is the most important part, in my opinion, of a jury trail. Selecting the jury.”
“it is your attorney's job to stand up and make a motion for what's called a judgment of acquittal.”
“but if you have an attorney that's worth anything at all they're gonna be working real hard for you.”
“this is the process that is the most important part, in my opinion, of a jury trail. Selecting the jury.”
“This is where it's slightly unfair and frustrating for us because the DA gets the chance to talk again.”
“We get one shot at the apple. But, as long as you have a good attorney, one shot is all you need.”