At a sentencing hearing, the judge or the prosecutor, depending on that particular courtroom, will take your plea. A lot of times, they have you sign a written waiver form of all your constitutional rights.
They will go over all your important constitutional rights and make sure that you understand them, that you sign the form, and that your lawyer fully informed you about what you are going to be getting yourself into.
Then, the judge will take your plea. If you get probation, all the terms and conditions of that probation will be explained, and then you will be sentenced.
If you got a jail sentence, you will typically be taken into custody. There will probably be a new court date set, called a progress report, just to make sure the judge can confirm that you are doing everything that you are supposed to do.
How Long Does The Los Angeles Sentencing Hearing Actually Take?
How long your sentencing hearing takes will depend on how many counts or how many charges you plead to, how complicated the sentence is, and whether there are multiple defendants in the case.
If it's just you and it's not a very complicated case, the sentencing shouldn't take much longer than five minutes. Different judges have different ways that they do things.
Some judges are more to the point while other judges are more concerned about not making mistakes. For example, if they improperly send someone to prison with the wrong sentence and the wrong language, then the state prison will send the case back, send them a letter, and tell them they need to re-sentence them. Obviously, judges find this embarrassing.
Will I Be Taken To Jail Immediately After My Sentence In LA County?
If you are sentenced to jail time, you are not necessarily going to be taken immediately. A lot of times, your sentencing attorney can ask for more time from the judge to get your affairs in order. Usually, the judge will give you at least a couple of weeks.
However, if it wasn't part of the deal and this particular judge has the policy of taking a person into custody right away, then you are going to be taken into custody right away to begin serving your sentence. Most of the judges are quite reasonable and will let you have some time to prepare.
What Does A Judge In Los Angeles Consider When Determining My Sentence?
The judge will consider a number of different factors when deciding the sentence. Most of the time, the sentence is actually decided by the prosecutor and the defense attorney getting together and negotiating the case.
The judge is really just putting his or her blessing on whatever deal was agreed upon by the defense attorney, the defendant, and the prosecutor. If it is a situation where the judge is going to be the one deciding what the ultimate sentence is, they will look at the pre-sentence report, the person's prior criminal record, and what the person did in this particular case.
They will also probably look at the impact on the victim in the case. The more serious the impact on the victim, the more likely the judges will punish with a harsh sentence.
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