A criminal case is a lawsuit in which the government accuses someone of violating a law. It usually involves the person being charged, known as the defendant, and a lawyer who works for the government, called the prosecutor. Every case is different, but there are certain things that happen in almost all cases.
For example, the police will prepare either an arrest report or a case report (also called a charge sheet) if the accused person is arrested. The case report contains information such as the names of the witnesses, and the alleged offenses. The prosecutor will then review the case report and decide whether to file criminal charges. If the prosecutor files criminal charges, a formal document called an indictment is filed. If the defendant is arrested without an indictment, the prosecutor may choose to file a document called an information instead.
The next court date is the arraignment, where the accused person is read the charges and enters a plea. The accused can request a jury trial or a bench trial. The judge will also set trial dates and schedule pretrial hearings. Both the defense and prosecution will often file motions, which are requests to decide certain issues before trial.
A criminal trial includes a jury selection process, in which the judge selects 12 jurors and 2-6 alternates to sit on the case. The judge will then read the Pre-Sentence Report and listen to arguments by the defense attorney and the prosecutor regarding aggravating factors, which tend to make a crime more severe, and mitigating factors, which may lessen the severity of the crime.
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