The Legal System - You Wait For Justice To Be Served

You have been charged with larceny/theft of a sufficient amount to count as a serious crime — a felony. A judge has determined there is sufficient evidence to set a trial date, and it is set. What happens to you now?

Assume you are a resident of one of the nation's 75 largest counties, where about one-half of all serious crimes occur. The chart presents U.S. Department of Justice data on what happened to defendants charged with felonies in those counties in the month of May 1992, 1994, 1996, and 1998 (total defendants in 1992, 51,002; in 1994, 50,241; in 1996, 51,234; and in 1998 54,458).⁸ Nearly two-thirds of defendants were sent home while the other third sat in jail. Proving that some people never learn, in 1998, 31% of those who were released were rearrested for a new offense or did not show up for a court date or violated some other condition of their pretrial release.

As might be expected, those charged with the most violent crimes were the most likely to be held until trial. In the nation's 75 most populous counties, 409 defendants had murder charges filed against them in the month of May 1998; 87% of the 409 were detained until trial. These individuals may be flight risks and/or dangers to themselves or the community. (Complete data for the various arrest charges can be found at the back of this book.) In 1998, in cases like yours (larceny/theft), 5,316 defendants (73%) were released to await trial.

Assume you have been released. While you wait for trial, the person responsible for prosecuting your case will most likely do one of two things: Prepare a case against you to prove "beyond a reasonable doubt" that you committed the crime of which you are accused or strike a plea bargain with you and your attorney. A plea bargain is an agreement between you and the prosecutor in which you plead guilty or no contest to criminal charges. In exchange, the prosecutor drops some charges, reduces a charge, or recommends that the judge enter a sentence that is acceptable to you. According to Nolo.com ("Law for All"), the nation's criminal courts are so clogged that plea bargaining is the method by which most criminal cases are now settled.

But there is no plea bargain for you, and your case is readied for trial. As we shall see in the next panel, from the time of your arrest to the disposition of your case, nothing will happen quickly. What is outlined here is just a bare-bones summary of the ordeal you have already endured — from police questioning (of you and most likely your friends and family too), to searches, to finding a lawyer, and more. And you haven't even told your story to the judge yet. How long will it take from beginning to end? Let's have a look at the statistics.

Sources: U.S. Department of Justice, "Felony Defendants in Large Urban Counties," 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pretrial.htm. "Criminal Law," http://www.nolo.com. Information retrieved November 4, 2002.