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Video Transcribed: Stage eight in an Oklahoma misdemeanor case, the trial. I’m Tulsa attorney James Wirth, and we’re about to talk about misdemeanor trial. All right. We’ve got everything already taken care of. We’ve got the arraignment done and behind us.
We’ve got the status conference where we try to meet with the prosecutors, see if we can get a deal worked out. Nothing was worked out. We’ve done the Allen Hearing to make sure that we’ve got complete discovery.
We’ve done the pretrial. We make sure that our Motions in Limine have been ruled on, and everybody knows what to expect at trial. And now we’re here at trial.
Sometimes it’s a bench trial. Sometimes it’s a jury trial. If you’re talking about a misdemeanor as a jury trial, we’re looking at six jurors. And you’ve got a right to a jury trial so you can demand that. But courts have also found that the state has a right to a jury trial.
Sometimes the defendant would waive it and the state would want a jury trial and you ended up at a jury trial. But either way, it’s going to be one or the other, and essentially that means that you’re going to be putting on witnesses, exhibits, get the testimony in there.
And then somebody is going to be making a determination on one, whether there’s guilt, meaning whether each of the elements of the offense has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt, and two, what the sentence should be within the range of punishment.
That process can take anywhere for a bench trial to perhaps a day to a long jury trial. It could take weeks and weeks potentially.
But whatever the case may be, that is the last stage, and you only get to that stage if no agreement is worked out with the prosecutor, and you decide that you would rather put on a trial and go for an acquittal than roll the dice on sentencing on a blind plea. And that’s where you end up at that point.
If you’re under these circumstances, though, you’re going to want more than the general information about what to expect at a jury trial. You’re going to want to know what specifically to expect at your trial, bench or jury trial.
For that, you’re going to want a consult with a experienced attorney. If you want to talk to somebody in my office, the Wirth Law Office, go to makelaweasy.com.
