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Should You Go To Trial In Your Criminal Case?

Posted by Ronald D. Hedding, ESQ. | Dec 04, 2019

Many people who are charged with crimes throughout Los Angeles County and even the United States grapple with this every day—trying to figure out whether they should go to a jury trial, whether they should let a jury decide their fate in a criminal case because that's really what you're doing when you go to trial.

The jury is going to listen to the prosecutor's evidence.  They'll listen to your criminal defense attorney cross-examine each of the witnesses that the prosecutors put on.  They'll be an opening statement, a closing argument.

The defense will also get to put on a case if they choose to and call witnesses, and the prosecution will get to cross-examine those witnesses. Of course, you, as a criminal defendant, are permitted to testify, but you're going to have to withstand cross-examination by the prosecuting attorney, who can ask you a lot of embarrassing questions and try to get you to say or do something that either makes you look bad or incriminates you.

Review Trial Strategy with Your Criminal Lawyer

Deciding whether to go to trial or not is a complex decision. It's crucial to make this decision in consultation with your attorney.  When clients ask me whether they should go to trial, my advice is straightforward.

I basically tell them, listen, if you did something wrong in this case and you know whether you did or you didn't and you did something criminal. You should probably, through consultation with your attorney, figure out a way to negotiate a plea bargain with the prosecutors and move on with your life. A plea bargain could offer you a chance to resolve the case and move forward, providing a sense of hope in a difficult situation.

If, on the other hand, you did not do anything criminal, you did not do anything wrong, then you shouldn't be taking a deal in the case.  You should be setting the case for trial and let your attorney defend you, put on your defense.  In a lot of these cases where somebody's innocent, of course, they should have their say in court, and they should testify, in my opinion.

Now, these are generalizations.  You've really got to sit down with your attorney, who knows all the facts and details about your case, when deciding whether to go to trial or not because there's a lot on the line when you go to trial.  If you work out a deal with the prosecutors, you typically know what your sentence is going to be, and you have some safety and security there because you know exactly what's going to happen to you.

Losing Case Means Losing Control Over What Happens To You

If you go to trial and are found guilty, you lose control over your fate. The trial judge will then determine your sentence, which could be severe.

Should You Go To Trial In Your California Criminal Case?

Your attorney can submit a sentencing memorandum, and the prosecutor can do the same. There will also be a probation report, but ultimately, the judge, after evaluating everything, will make the final decision.

So, this has a degree of dangerousness to it because you don't know what that judge is going to do.  You don't know how that judge is going to view your case and how that judge is going to view the fact that you went to jury trial and ended up being found guilty.

So, this is definitely something you want to consider. Suppose you can get a resolution where you're out of custody relatively quickly versus you could face a huge amount of time in criminal custody. In that case, that is definitely a big factor that may weigh in favor of your attorney working out a deal for you.

So, when you're deciding whether to go to jury trial, you want to discuss the issues surrounding your case with your attorney.  Since practicing criminal defense for over twenty-five years, I've probably done over 250 jury trials. Your active involvement in these discussions can help you understand the complexities of your case and feel more in control of the decision-making process.

So, I can pretty much give my client a good idea of what evidence the prosecutors are going to put on to try and prove the case and give you a good feel for how a jury might perceive that evidence.  Then I'm going to be able to tell you what your defense is going to be based on the evidence, based on our conversation, and obviously, based on what makes sense and how we would put that defense on and how a jury might view that.

Ultimately, there's no certainty in a criminal trial. Twelve community members, unknown to you, will decide your fate. Their decisions are influenced by various factors, making the outcome unpredictable.

Experienced Jury Trial Defense Lawyer

Sometimes, they bring with them bias and prejudice against criminal defendants, thinking that they must be guilty if the state files a case against them.  This is something that's going to be dealt with and grappled with in the voir dire at the jury trial level, but still, you can't creep into a person's mind and see everything that they're thinking and how they view things.  So, sometimes that works to the prosecutor's advantage, and sometimes it works to the defense's advantage.

So, there is a degree of uncertainty when you take your criminal case to trial for both sides.  The prosecutors can lose cases as well or there can be hung juries because they get particular jurors that don't want to find a person guilty or don't trust the prosecutors.

There's a whole host of different factors that go into these jury trials.  That's why, in my opinion, it's crucial that you hire an experienced criminal defense attorney who's been down this road before, knows how to handle a jury trial, and knows how to help you make the decision whether going to trial in your case in Los Angeles makes sense or not. Their experience can provide you with a sense of reassurance in this uncertain process.

About the Author

Ronald D. Hedding, ESQ.

Ronald D. Hedding, Esq., is the founding member of the Hedding Law Firm. Mr. Hedding has an extensive well-rounded legal background in the area of Criminal Law. He has worked for the District Attorney's Office, a Superior Court Judge, and as the guiding force behind the Hedding Law Firm. His multi-faceted experience sets Mr. Hedding apart and puts him in an elite group of the best Criminal Defense Attorneys in Southern California.

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