The prosecution and defense get together with the judge and determine a final set of instructions that the judge will give the jury. Prosecution closing argument. The prosecution makes its closing argument, summarizing the evidence as the prosecution sees it and explaining why the jury should render a guilty verdict. Defense closing argument. The defense's counterpart to the prosecutor's closing argument. The lawyer explains why the jury should render a "not guilty" verdict—or at least a guilty verdict on only a lesser charge.
The prosecution has the last word, if it chooses to take it, and again argues that the jury has credible evidence that supports a finding of guilty. Jury instructions. The judge instructs the jury about what law to apply to the case and how to carry out its duties.
Some judges "preinstruct" juries, reciting instructions before closing argument or even at the outset of trial. Jury deliberations. The jury deliberates and tries to reach a verdict. Juries must be unanimous. If less than the requisite number of jurors agrees on a verdict, the jury is "hung" and the case may be retried. Post-trial motions. If the jury produces a guilty verdict, the defense often makes post-trial motions requesting the judge to override the jury and either grant a new trial or acquit the defendant.
Again, see Acquittals by Judges in Jury Trials. Also see Motions for New Trial. Denial of post-trial motions. Almost always, the judge denies the defense post-trial motions. Assuming a conviction a verdict of "guilty" , the judge either sentences the defendant on the spot or sets sentencing for another day. Berman Nolo. The information provided on this site is not legal advice, does not constitute a lawyer referral service, and no attorney-client or confidential relationship is or will be formed by use of the site.
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Meet the Editors. Criminal Trial Procedures: An Overview. Most criminal trials follow a uniform set of procedures. Here's a step-by-step guide to the process. Criminal cases brought before the courts are generally separated into three categories: misdemeanors, felonies, and treason. Misdemeanors are lesser offenses settled with fines or forfeiture of property, and some are punishable with a jail sentence of less than one year.
Felonies are far more serious crimes that result in harsher penalties such as being sentenced to a state or federal penitentiary for one year or longer. They include assault cases, drug sales, various white collar crimes and other deeds that are harmful to people or society. Felony crimes such as homicide may also be eligible to receive the death penalty in some states.
Treason is defined as any act that violates allegiance to your own country. Originally this primarily referred to war crimes, but over the years the most common form of treason has become the selling of government secrets to hostile countries. Criminal law continually grows, and is often subject to change based on the morals and values of the times. Louis de Muralt, a French visitor, reported in a letter published in but written up to thirty years earlier, that "the printed accounts An example of their "diverting" content was the publication in of a phonetic account of the testimony of a drunken Irishman, which earned a censure from the City authorities for the "lewd and indecent manner" in which the trial was reported.
For more information on this case, see Irish London. In December the publisher introduced a number of changes to the format in order to make the Proceedings more attractive to readers, in the face of competition from daily newspapers and published compilations of trials.
They were expanded to 24 pages, and included yearly indexes, cross-referencing between trials, advertisements in the back, and, most importantly, much greater use of verbatim accounts of the testimony of prosecutors, witnesses, and defendants, as well as judges' comments and questions this was facilitated by the use of shorthand note takers. Ordinary trials were still treated very briefly, in order to allow more space for the more exciting crimes, including murders, sexual crimes, and thefts from the person which usually involved prostitutes.
From the s, the Proceedings for each sessions began to be issued in two parts as a way of further increasing the publisher's profits. Despite attempts by the City to stop the practice the number of parts per sessions increased over the years to three, four, and eventually five per sessions in the s. Evidence of their growing respectability and possibly declining readership can also be seen in the decreasing number of advertisements with the exception of those for the shorthand writers who took notes at the trials in the s.
By the late eighteenth century, public interest in the lives of ordinary criminals was waning, and other types of literature about crime, such as criminal biographies , lost popularity. The Proceedings came to provide much less sexually explicit testimony and the number of trials reported increased significantly. At the same time, accounts of what happened at the Old Bailey were reported in increasing detail in the newspapers.
For all these reasons the Proceedings ceased to be commercially viable and in a subsidy had to be paid by the City to ensure continued publication earlier, publishers had paid the City for the privilege of publishing the Proceedings. In addition, the publisher was required to supply free copies of the Proceedings to City officials. In part, these requirements resulted from the fact the Proceedings were being used by the City's Recorder as a formal record: they formed the basis of the Recorder's report to the King concerning which of the convicts sentenced to death should be pardoned.
Moreover, at a time of social instability, the City was concerned to demonstrate to the public the fairness and impartiality of judicial procedures at the Old Bailey.
As a result of this increased scrutiny and new demands from the City, the length of the trial reports increased and some of the practices publishers used to sell copies were abandoned. The practice of providing considerable detail of the more entertaining crimes, while providing only brief details of others, ceased, and all trials now received more or less uniform treatment.
Similarly, the practice of dividing reports of particularly exciting trials between two parts of the Proceedings in order to increase sales was discontinued. From this point the Proceedings became more or less an official publication of the City, though they continued to be produced by a commercial publisher. They were provided less for the purpose of entertainment than as a means of keeping an accurate public record of events which transpired in the courtroom.
But their commercial viability was increasingly undermined by their length and detail, and in the s publishers began to target the Proceedings at a legal audience, taking advantage of the increasing number of lawyers present at the Old Bailey.
The Central Criminal Court Act of changed the name of the court and enlarged its jurisdiction. Accordingly, the title of the Proceedings shifted to the The Whole Proceedings In recognition of the increased jurisdiction, the Act provided that the judges of the court had the right to reclaim some of the costs of publishing the Proceedings from the Counties of London, Essex and Kent, though the City of London continued to bear the bulk of the cost. With few paying subscribers, the Proceedings were now essentially a publicly funded publication for the use of judicial officials.
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