Description

Most jurisdictions have two or more distinct sets of criminal procedures to govern charges of differing degrees of gravity. The jurisdictions vary regarding the number of sets of procedures employed (usually two or three), the charges governed by each set, and the particular courts, stages, and practices involved in each set. Local statutes, rules, and customs must be consulted. (In federal practice, for example, criminal prosecutions in the United States District Courts are governed by Rules 1-57 and 59-61 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure; Rule 58 provides a somewhat different set of rules for proceedings in petty-offense and misdemeanor cases.) The following sections of this chapter provide a brief description of the typical stages in each set of procedures in a three-set jurisdiction. In such a jurisdiction, summary procedure is used for petty state charges and for most municipal ordinance violations when ordinance violations are conceived as being criminal rather than civil matters. Misdemeanor procedure is used for charges of middling seriousness, and felony procedure for serious charges. (The terms summary procedure, misdemeanor procedure, and felony procedure are used as generic artifices here; the boundary between the second and third categories in some jurisdictions corresponds only roughly to the technical felony-misdemeanor line.) From summary through misdemeanor to felony procedure, the process becomes increasingly elaborate and increasingly protracted. A summary defendant may be tried, convicted, and sentenced within hours of arrest. A felony defendant is often not formally charged in the court having jurisdiction to try the charge (that is, s/he is not indicted) for months after arrest.

First Page

18

Source Publication

Trial Manual 11 for the Defense of Criminal Cases

Source Editors/Authors

Anthony G. Amsterdam, Randy A. Hertz

Publication Date

2026

Document Type

Chapter

Edition

11

Rights & Restrictions

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

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