Should I Choose a Bench Trial or a Jury Trial?

If you are charged with a crime, you have the right –at both the federal and state level – to a jury trial, and you may also have the option of choosing a bench trial in its place. While most charges are resolved prior to court, this doesn’t mean that invoking your right to a trial can’t be advantageous under the right circumstances.

Every criminal charge is unique to the situation at hand, and strategizing the best legal path forward is critical to obtaining an optimal outcome. And for that you need the skilled legal guidance of an experienced Killeen criminal defense attorney on your side.

A Bench Trial

A bench trial is a trial in which the judge is the sole trier of fact, which means that they alone hear the case and determine whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty. Generally, jury trials are preferred over bench trials, but there are cases that can benefit from cutting the jury out of the equation.

A Jury Trial

If you proceed with a jury trial to resolve the matter of the criminal charge against you, it means that 12 members of your community, who make up an impartial jury – as is your right in accordance with the Sixth Amendment of the Constitution – will hear your case. You have undoubtedly heard the phrase a jury of your peers, and that is what jury trials are all about.

At your jury trial, the prosecution is charged with persuading the jurors that you are guilty of the charge levied against you – and they must convince them that your guilt is beyond a reasonable doubt. Your defense attorney, on the other hand, is invested in establishing that the state doesn’t meet this burden of proof.

At your trial, the jury will hear the legal arguments and evidence presented by both sides and, ultimately, will carefully examine the facts of the case in the process of determining whether you are guilty or not guilty.

The Extent of Your Right to a Jury Trial

It’s important to recognize that if you are accused of a serious criminal charge, you have the absolute right to a jury trial, but this right isn’t without limitations. Jury trials in Texas are reserved for offenses that are deemed serious, which – for the purposes of a jury trial – means that a conviction carries a jail sentence of more than six months.

However, this should in no way lead you to believe that a criminal charge carrying less than a six-month jail sentence isn’t serious – because any criminal charge can have a very serious impact on your future and should be taken very seriously.

If the charge you’re facing doesn’t have a sentence of more than six months, your right to a jury trial doesn’t stand. It’s also important to know that the length of a cumulative sentence won’t reach the level required for that right to be upheld.

For example, if you are charged with three misdemeanors and not one of them carries a sentence of at least six months, your right to a jury trial will be denied even though the total jail time you face may be well over six months.

How the Jury Is Selected

In a jury trial, the judge is there to guide the proceedings, maintain order in the court, and ensure that the law is upheld every step of the way, but they don’t serve in that trier of fact role.

This means that they don’t determine the disputed issues of fact in the case, which is left to the jury. In other words, the jury plays a profoundly important role, and how it’s chosen is a key issue.

Voir Dire

Jury member selection occurs during voir dire, and at voir dire, the judge, the prosecuting attorney, and your defense attorney will ask potential jurors questions in order to determine how well suited they are to hear the case at hand.

The Judge

The judge is there to excuse any potential jurors for whom serving would be too great of a hardship and any potential jurors who aren’t legally qualified to serve. Qualifications for serving on a jury in the State of Texas include all the following:

The juror must be a U.S. citizen.
The juror must be at least 18 years old.
The juror must reside in Bell County – in order to serve on a Killeen case.
The juror must be qualified to vote in the county of service – even if they aren’t registered to vote.
The juror must be able to read and write.
The juror must be of sound mind and of solid moral character.
The juror can’t have been convicted of a felony or of any kind of theft charge.

Undue hardship might apply when a potential juror is the sole caregiver for a close family member who is seriously ill. Finally, the judge can also excuse a potential juror for harboring an implied or actual bias that could interfere with their ability to faithfully serve as an impartial juror.

The Prosecution and the Defense

Your attorney and the prosecutor can both request that certain members of the jury be removed for reasons that are classified as either for cause or as a peremptory challenge.

For Cause Challenges

When either side challenges a juror for cause, they’re required to give a reason – or cause – for doing so. Each side is typically afforded an unlimited number of these challenges. Challenges for cause can be based on a failure to meet statutory requirements or for any of the following reasons – as discovered during the questioning process:

Due to the juror’s prior exposure to prejudicial information regarding the case
Due to the juror’s personal biases or beliefs
Due to the juror’s education or profession
Due to the juror being unable to view the applicable facts fairly
Due to the juror being otherwise prejudiced against you as the defendant or against the prosecution

Peremptory Challenges

The prosecution and the defense are each afforded a specific number of peremptory challenges, which allow them to exclude a juror without specifying a reason. Such challenges, however, can’t be based on sex, race, or ethnicity, and when the other side believes any one of these is the motivation behind the other side’s peremptory challenge, they can object.

Striking the Jury

The prosecution and the defense’s challenges are heard in the process of striking the jury, which is when the judge makes the final determinations. Once both sides have made their arguments, have exhausted their peremptory challenges, or are simply satisfied with the jury’s makeup, the chosen jury is sworn in.

Voir dire is a critical step on the path toward a jury trial, and your seasoned criminal defense attorney will carefully strategize what they’re looking for in the right jury for your case. This can generally be summed up as one that is more – rather than less – sympathetic to you and your situation.

The Benefits of Having a Jury Trial

There are many advantages associated with having a jury trial. To begin, your dedicated Killeen criminal defense attorney played a direct role in selecting the jury that will hear your case. This means they have a degree of control over the panel of jurors who are slated to determine your fate.

Appealing to the Jurors’ Emotions

Further, while the jurors aren’t likely to be experts on criminal law, they do have a considerable amount of experience living in the world, which means they understand the challenges we all face and recognize that not every mistake is a crime. In other words, most juries have a degree of compassion for the defendants who are on trial.

Jurors also tend to be more susceptible to the emotions evoked by your attorney’s language than a judge would be. By making arguments that speak to the jurors on a personal level, your savvy attorney tailors your defense to them, which generally isn’t a possibility with a judge at a bench trial.

Strength in Numbers

At a jury trial, there are 12 jurors deciding the outcome of your case, and if even one of them finds that your guilt hasn’t been proven beyond a reasonable doubt, it can lead to a hung jury.

At that point, the state can retry you, but most cases that aren’t extremely serious aren’t retried. Convincing one person out of twelve – rather than one person out of one – adds up to good odds for you.

Opportunities for Appeal

A jury trial generally affords more opportunities for appeal. The jurors hearing your case are not legal experts, and although they’re instructed regarding the legalities involved, they’re only human, and there is plenty of room for mistakes to be made.

Such a mistake – or juror misconduct – can translate to grounds for a criminal appeal. There is much less chance that the judge in a bench trial – who is a legal expert – is going to do something that supports an appeal.

The Cons of a Jury Trial

Some of the benefits of a jury trial are double-edged swords. For example, while the jurors’ emotions can work to your advantage, they can also work against you. People – being people – can have strong emotional reactions to specific kinds of charges and to specific language used, and the facts can get lost in translation.

Additional considerations to keep in mind include:

When the case itself is especially serious and emotionally charged, the jury may have difficulty separating the facts from their emotional responses.
When the case is emotionally charged, the jury can feel a strong pull to hand down justice for the victim, which can override their ability to determine the defendant’s guilt fairly.
Juries and individual jurors are nothing if not unpredictable. While you may have a solid defense and the evidence against you may be weak, the jury could still find you guilty. Often, this is related to them not understanding the burden of proof involved, misinterpreting the facts presented, or failing to carefully follow the judge’s instructions.

While you can generally waive your right to a jury trial – in favor of a bench trial – you may need the approval of both the judge and the prosecution.

Bench Trial vs. Jury Trial

A bench trial is also called a trial by judge, which means there is no jury involved. Instead, the judge hearing your case will make the final ruling regarding whether you are guilty or not guilty. There are specific benefits of bench trials that may or may not be advantageous in relation to your case. Consider the following primary advantages:

Bench trials are generally speedier than jury trials since there is no need for jury selection.
Bench trials tend to be a bit less formal than jury trials, which can make them less intimidating.
The judge who hears your case in a bench trial has legal expertise and a considerable amount of education as well as experience deciphering complex evidence – all of which can be beneficial if the bulk of the evidence supporting you is highly technical and difficult to understand.

Discuss Your Case with an Experienced Killeen Criminal Defense Attorney Today

If you are facing a criminal charge, you undoubtedly have questions about how best to proceed. The bottom line is – when it comes to an issue of this magnitude – you need focused legal representation in your corner.

Brett Pritchard at The Law Office of Brett H. Pritchard is a trusted Killeen criminal defense attorney who unleashes the full force of his expansive experience in defense of every client he represents, and every defense strategy he employs is personalized to the unique case at hand.

We are on your side and here to help, so please don’t wait to contact or call us at 254-781-4222 to schedule your free consultation today.