Families of Prisoners Support Group
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I want to start by saying it is sooo nice to be able to read and see that there are people who understand what I am going through and are all so knowledgeable about how things work because I have not ever had experience with this in the past. So I was wondering what does a final pre-trial really mean, do they often get continued?? and if he doesn't go to trial is it usually a long time before he will be sentenced, there are three other co-defendants so if they plead innocent and take it to trial will my hugo have to wait until they are done with the trial.. any insight is appreciated. The other night we were talking on the phone and I mentioned something about being together when he gets out and he seemed very unsure I think he is starting to think it will be a while, I know that the charge he has, which is co-conspiriting with intent to distribute carried a mandatory minimum of 10 years but his public defender said he may qualify for a safety valve, this is on a federal level all of this is for a point of reference. again thoughts anyone?
Guys sometimes think if they are going to be in a long time, they should set us free, not make us wait for them. But they don't realize if we love them, we can't set our hearts free of them. It just doesn't work that way.
They go through all kinds of emotional things. Crabby, depressed, angry, tense. They can't take it out on the guys there, so they sometimes take it out on us.
They don't realize setting us free would not make us miss them.
If I were you, I would either look up what final pre trial is, or call the courthouse clerk and ask for an explanation. There are so many hearings, and other names they call them from state to state, I don't know. Even if it is federal.
Contact a lawyers office where you are and just ask that question. The person answering may even be able to answer it. Or the Law School at the University by you.
Here is how a case moves through the legal system-----
After the suspect is arrested, they have either 48 or 72 hours to arraign him. This is done at a court hearing called an arraignment; the arraignment is the first official court hearing for the defendant.
The arraignment will be with an empty courtroom with only the judge, the DA or prosecutor, the defendant, and the defendant's attorney present. There will also be a court reporter to make a record of the proceedings.
At this arraignment, the judge will formally read the charges to the defendant. Of course, any defendant that is not an idiot will plead "not guilty." If bail has not been discussed, it can be discussed here, as the judge will usually set a bail amount. If the defendant cannot make bail, he will be remanded to the custody of the sheriff if it is state charges and the United States Marshall if his charges are federal charges.
At this time, if the defendant does not have an attorney, arrangements will be made to appoint him a court-appointed public defender to handle his case.
After this, there may be an evidentiary hearing to determine what evidence can or cannot be used in court, should there be a trial.
At this time, there are several possible pre-trial hearings to discuss with the judge any problems which may arise between the prosecution and the defense.
Then, if requested by the defendant, there will be a preliminary hearing to determine if there is enough evidence for the case to be bound over to trial. Again, like the arraignment, the only people there will be the prosecutor, the defense attorney, the judge, and the defendant, BUT the state or government will also call witnesses to testify for the state so the prosecutor can show the judge that there is enough evidence to go to trial. This preliminary hearing can last for an entire day.
In some situations, instead of a preliminary hearing they will allow the Grand Jury to look at the evidence and if there is enough evidence, they will bring back an indictment to show there is enough evidence to go to trial. Grand Juries are very prosecution-friendly, so it best to avoid them and stikc with a preliminary hearing.
Your guy will not have a preliminary hearing since everyone knows he will not be going to trial.
If, after the preliminary hearing, the judge decides there is enough evidence to proceed to trial, the defendant is bound over to trial. He will be remanded back to the sheriff or the U S Marshalls if he was not able to make bail. If there is NOT enough evidence to bound him over for trial, the defendant is released, the charges are dropped, and he is free to walk.
I know your guy's charges.
Now about your particular situation-----
Don't even think about going to trial with your husband's charges. You can bet they already have enough evidence to convict him for possession at least and when the jury does convict him---which, trust me, they will----he will get a very lengthy sentence. I am talking anything from 30 to 60 years.
If the charges are federal charges, he will have to do 85% of that before he is released; so you can do the math and see what I am talking about. They also have no parole in the federal system, as parole was abolished in the 1980's.
If he was stupid enough to go to trial, they would try him on each and every count and when found guilty, as I said, he would have a very long sentence to serve.
A man in Arizona foolishly went to trial several years ago on charges much like your guy's charges, and he was awarded a 200 year sentence.
http://tinyurl.com/28kvtd
He will have to plead guilty and get the best plea deal he can get.
Hope this helps.
rewdiazepam
REW if I am not explaining the safety valve correctly please help me out.
The Safety Valve legislation can only be used if several conditions exist concerning the conviction and the crime. If it is used, then the judge can sentence below the mandatory minimum.
The problem is that the Safety Valve legislation, at least for now, is only used in drug crimes and those drug crimes cannot be crimes in which a firearm was present. I don't know all about his case, but you might remind this attorney that the Safety Valve legislation only applies to federal drug crimes.
The cooperation method is just what you might think----it is basically cooperating with the prosecution and giving up names of others, usually co-defendants. Actually, it is snitching. A person can avoid the mandatory minimums in a case where the defendant has cooperated with the government.
The other ladies are correct. If he decides to cooperate with the government and turn state's evidence against his co-defendants or anyone, both of you need to keep it hush hush.
If he does go to prison and the other inmates find out, they will hate him and it is no fun in prison when everyone hates you.
Snitching in prison is even one notch lower than sex offenders in the prison hierarchy.
Ralph
http://www.prisonbookprogram.org/resources/legal-resources/
It doesn't define "final" pretrial per se, but it does define "pretrial conference" In a nutshell, in our legal system both the defense and prosecution must be privy to the same information so they can prepare a response. It's where all parties define what can and can not be presented at trial.