The Criminal Defense Process Part 12 - The Verdict

The Criminal Defense Process Part 12 – The Verdict

In this video, I am going to talk about the verdict after a trial in a criminal defense case. Before we get straight to the verdict and whether a person is guilty or not guilty, you have to talk a little bit about at the end of the trial how that works. After the judge has read the jury its’ instructions, he is going to release the jury to go back and deliberate about the case. Now after the jury is out deliberating, they are going, they are going to have very, very minimal impact on what happens after that. The jury will consider all of the evidence that is presented in the case and give it its’ due weight and they will decide whether the state has met their burden. Now during this process, the only real time you will interact, or your defense lawyer or the state will interact with the judge and jury in this case, is if there is a question. The jury has some sort of question that they want to present that either was not explained or if the jury wants to look at some sort of exhibit, they notify the bailiff and the bailiff will notify the judge and then you will have a conference with the judge, your lawyer, and the state’s lawyer, about whether they can answer the question and how best to answer the question if they can answer the question. It is up to the judge to determine if the question can be answered, and sometimes the answer is you just have to rely on the evidence that was presented at trial. After that is concluded, after the deliberations have gone through and any questions have been answered that can be answered, the jury will hopefully come to a verdict in the case. Now sometimes, the jury cannot come to a verdict in the case. They are incurably deadlocked. When this happens, then sometimes, the case has to be retried. But a judge will generally try to get a jury to come to some sort of verdict so that that process, the retire process, does not have to begin again. Once the jury comes to a verdict in their case, they will notify the bailiff, the bailiff will then notify the judge, and then the jury will come back into the courtroom. At that point, the judge will ask the jury if they came to a verdict. That verdict will be produced to the judge and the judge will read it aloud in front of the court. Now this is where the case can end. It can end if there is an acquittal, or if the person is found not guilty, then the case on your side just stops. If the person is found guilty, whether on one charge or multiple charges, then the case continues. For more information on how the case continues, please look at our website, www.copleyroth.com.