Should,you,demand,Jury,Trial,F law Should you demand a Jury Trial For A Criminal Case in Virgin
When you work with an attorney, you will have no problem reducing the risks associated with getting your case in front of a judge and jury, or other formal court, when you need to. However, every case is different. It is important to work wi Bankruptcy is a situation, wherein an individual is termed as unable to discharge all the debts. When a person or a company is not able to pay off its creditors, it has an obligation to file a bankruptcy suit. In fact, a bankruptcy suit is a
Through the legal doctrine of "incorporation", the Bill ofRights of the U.S. Constitution has been applied to the states. By thisdoctrine, the states judiciaries are required to respect the Rights guaranteedto us by the Constitution. One of these Rights, the Sixth Amendment, is the right to a jury trial for all criminal offenses wherethe defendant is facing a sentence exceeding six months in jail.According the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, only about5% of all criminal convictions come by way of a trial; the other 95% areresolved by guilty pleas. Of that 5%, only 1% are decided by jury trials. Ofthe more than one million criminal trials annually nationwide, why have so manyAmericans decided to voluntarily forego one of the oldest and most cherishedrights we possess? To answer that question, we have to be aware a severalcontributing factors, all of which have been employed to make our criminaljustice system operate more efficiently, i.e., guarantee more convictions. Lets face it. There is no possible way that our justicesystem can withstand bench trials (trial by a judge with no jury) for everycriminal case, let alone a jury trial which lasts considerably longer. InVirginia, there are more than 200,000 criminal cases statewide each year. Thejudicial system in its current state is stressed to its limits; if there wereto be a small increase in the number of defendants demanding trials, thejudicial system would face collapse. If those same defendants demanded jurytrials the system would essentially collapse.To combat the recent rise in crime during the last quartercentury, mostly due to more drug crimes and other "vice" crimes, Virginias General Assembly added more weapons toprosecutors arsenals. One of these weapons was increased minimum sentences. UnderVirginia law, if a jury returns a verdict of guilty, they will also recommend asentence. So long as the sentence is within the minimum/maximum window, it isvalid. Judges rarely ignore jury sentences which many times is much longer thana sentence issued by a judge. In Virginia, a jury, unlike a judge, is notpermitted to suspend any sentence recommendation. Therefore, if someone ischarged with drug trafficking in Virginia, a charge that carries afive year minimum sentence, a judge may suspend four of those five years, ajury may not.Another law in Virginia allows that any of the threeparties, the defendant, judge or the prosecutor, may demand a jury trial.Knowing the minimum sentence range, a prosecutor may threaten to demand a jurytrial. Imagine that! A Constitutional Right being used as a threat to the defendant.Any defendant that is facing a minimum sentence of five years, even if they areinnocent, may consider a guilty plea with a six month sentence.Finally there are the Virginia criminal defense lawyers. While jurytrials are a staple of romanticism in Hollywood movies, they are grueling anddemanding in actuality on the defendant for sure, as well as the criminaldefense lawyer. Negotiating a guilty plea, or even preparing for a bench trial,may require several hours of work. To prepare adequately for a jury trial cantake days, weeks, even months. Most defendants can simply not afford theexpense of a jury trial which can run into the tens of thousands, even hundredsof thousands for serious and complex matters.In general, the only people that currently opt for a jurytrial may fall into three categories: those who claim to be truly innocent andrefuse to plead guilty, those who are just too stubborn to accept the facts andreality, and those who are career offenders and have nothing to lose by a jurytrial. If you are charged with a crime in Virginia, you should seek counselfrom a criminal lawyer to decide if you should plead guilty or go to trial, andif a trial, should it be by a judge or jury.
Should,you,demand,Jury,Trial,F