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The information on Groklaw is not intended to constitute legal advice. While Mark is a lawyer and he has asked other lawyers and law students to contribute articles, all of these articles are offered to help educate, not to provide specific legal advice. They are not your lawyers.

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contradictory advice | 244 comments | Create New Account
Comments belong to whoever posts them. Please notify us of inappropriate comments.
contradictory advice
Authored by: IANALitj on Saturday, May 25 2013 @ 12:52 AM EDT
Sorry, PJ, but this is not a matter of waiver.

http://www.burdenofproof.org/benchtrial.html says flatly

"Under the sixth amendment of the United States Constitution, every citizen
is entitled to a trial by jury if he or she is accused of a crime. This
protection applies to any type of criminal case, regardless of the severity of
the offense."

In contrast,
http://criminal.lawyers.com/Criminal-Law-Basics/Criminal-Law-Bench-Trials-No-Jur
y-Required.html says

"It's commonly believed that defendants are guaranteed the right to a trial
by jury. However, this isn't always the case. The right to a jury trial doesn't
extend to 'petty offenses.' Petty offenses are generally those that carry a
maximum penalty of six months in jail and a maximum fine of $5,000."

Six months in jail is a considerable punishment by many people's standards.

I cannot see how these two quotations can be made consistent. Either there is
or is not a Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial for a "petty
offense."

I suppose that it is possible that in some jurisdictions, there is a right to a
trial by jury in every criminal case, even cases of "petty offenses."
I do not believe that this is generally the case, however. The administrative
burden would be immense.

The exact details of the right to a jury as a constitutional matter are still
being worked out. See, e.g., the opinions in Lewis v. United States, 518 U.S.
322 (1996) which may be read at
http://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/518/322/ .



[ Reply to This | Parent | # ]

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