ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the process used for criminal trials by first defining crime and explores the role of the major actors in the criminal justice process. It explores the steps that lead up to the sentencing of a criminal defendant found guilty of a crime. The chapter also describes the phenomenon of plea bargaining, since around 90 to 95 percent of state criminal cases and over 97 percent of federal cases end in plea bargains. The criminal defendant has the right to a jury in all cases where he or she could receive a jail or prison sentence of more than six months. A jury is mandatory in a capital punishment case, however, and the prosecutor must decide before trial whether or not to seek the death penalty. The death penalty remains highly controversial in the United States, in part because almost all other industrialized democracies around the world have abolished its use.
