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Arrest Through Trial

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On this page 9 sections
  1. In 30 seconds
  2. Why this matters
  3. The college version
  4. Eli explains
  5. Worked example
  6. Key takeaway
  7. Quick check
  8. Study tools
  9. Sources & references

In 30 seconds

A criminal case in the United States moves through a fixed order: arrest, , a prompt judicial check on probable cause, an where counsel attaches, a formal charge by complaint, , or grand jury , sometimes a , then and plea, discovery, pretrial motions, and only rarely a trial, verdict, sentence, and appeal. Learn the order and what each step decides, and the rest of criminal procedure has somewhere to live. This lesson is educational material, not legal advice.

Why this matters

Almost everything students later learn about criminal procedure attaches to a stage in this sequence. Suppression doctrine lives at the pretrial motion. The Sixth Amendment right to counsel attaches at the initial appearance. The prosecution's disclosure duty runs from charging through sentencing. Without the map, those rules float free and turn into memorization. The sequence also shows the system's real shape: in federal court in fiscal year 2025, 97.7 percent of the people sentenced had pleaded guilty, so the stages before trial are where most cases are actually decided. Anyone reading court records, covering courts, working in a public agency, or heading toward law school needs this ordering, and needs to know the names and deadlines change at the state line.

The college version

Arrest, and the paperwork behind it

A case usually begins with an arrest, which happens one of two ways. An officer may go to a judge first: under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 4, if a sworn complaint or its affidavits establish probable cause to believe an offense was committed and that this person committed it, the judge must issue an arrest warrant. Or the officer arrests without a warrant and the judicial check comes afterward, in which case Rule 5(b) requires that a complaint be promptly filed. Rule 3 defines the complaint as a written statement of the essential facts constituting the offense, made under oath before a magistrate judge. It accuses, and it is not the final charging document. What the Fourth Amendment lets an officer do before this point belongs to the search-seizure-and-warrants topic. Booking follows arrest: the jail records identity and the alleged offense and usually takes fingerprints, photographs, and a property inventory. It is administrative, and no judge has yet reviewed anything.

The prompt probable-cause determination

A warrantless arrest gets its judicial review after the fact. In Gerstein v. Pugh (1975) the Supreme Court held that the Fourth Amendment requires a judicial determination of probable cause as a prerequisite to extended restraint of liberty following arrest, and that the prosecutor's own assessment does not satisfy it. But the Court kept the proceeding small. Its only question is whether probable cause supports detaining this person pending further proceedings, which can be decided reliably on informal, nonadversary proof, so it is not a critical stage requiring appointed counsel. Gerstein said the determination must be prompt without saying how prompt. County of Riverside v. McLaughlin (1991) supplied the number: a jurisdiction combining the determination with other pretrial proceedings must do so as soon as reasonably feasible and no later than 48 hours after arrest. That is a presumption running both ways. Inside 48 hours an arrested person can still show unreasonable delay; outside it the government must prove a bona fide emergency or other extraordinary circumstance, and the Court said intervening weekends do not count.

The initial appearance

Within roughly the same window the arrested person is brought before a judicial officer for the initial appearance. Rule 5 requires that this happen without unnecessary delay, and in a felony case the judge must state the complaint and any supporting affidavit and advise the defendant of the right to retain or be appointed counsel, the circumstances of any pretrial release, any right to a preliminary hearing, and the right not to make a statement. The judge must allow a reasonable chance to consult counsel, then release or detain. That release-or-detain question is bail doctrine, which the bail-and-pretrial-procedure topic owns. One thing does not happen here: no plea is taken, because Rule 5(d)(4) sends pleas to Rule 10. Rothgery v. Gillespie County (2008) held that this appearance, where the defendant learns the charge and his liberty becomes subject to restriction, begins adversary judicial proceedings and triggers attachment of the Sixth Amendment right to counsel, whether or not a prosecutor knew about it.

Charging: complaint, information, indictment

The complaint that got the case into court is not what the defendant will answer at trial. A charging decision has to be made, and there are three instruments. A complaint carries minor cases in some systems. An information is a charging document a prosecutor signs and files, with no grand jury vote. An indictment is a charge a grand jury returns after voting that the evidence is enough to make the accused answer. Rule 7 makes the federal choice nearly automatic: an offense punishable by death or by more than one year in prison must be prosecuted by indictment, though a defendant charged with a non-capital offense may waive indictment in open court and be prosecuted by information. A federal grand jury has 16 to 23 members, and Rule 6(f) permits an indictment only if at least 12 concur. The proceeding is closed and secret, and the Justice Department notes that a witness compelled to testify before a federal grand jury may not have an attorney in the room.

Why the grand jury step is federal

The Fifth Amendment provides that no person shall be held to answer for a capital or otherwise infamous crime unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces or in the militia when in actual service in time of war or public danger. Students reasonably assume this is the national rule. It is not. In Hurtado v. California (1884) the Supreme Court held that the words 'due process of law' in the Fourteenth Amendment do not necessarily require grand jury indictment in a state prosecution, upholding a California murder conviction obtained on an information filed after a magistrate's examination. The clause is one of the few criminal-process guarantees never incorporated against the states. Some states require indictment under their own constitutions or statutes; others do not. California's constitution, article I, section 14, still provides that felonies shall be prosecuted either by indictment or, after examination and commitment by a magistrate, by information. Incorporation itself belongs to the constitutional-protections topic.

The preliminary hearing

Where a case is not indicted, a preliminary hearing typically supplies the judicial screen. It asks whether the evidence establishes probable cause to believe an offense was committed and that this defendant committed it, and unlike the it is adversary. For any offense other than a petty offense, Rule 5.1 requires a federal magistrate judge to hold one within 14 days of the initial appearance if the defendant is in custody and 21 days if not, unless the defendant waives it, is indicted, or is charged by information. The defendant may cross-examine adverse witnesses and introduce evidence but may not object that evidence was unlawfully acquired; that is saved for a suppression motion. A finding of no probable cause requires dismissal and discharge, which does not stop a later prosecution for the same offense. Because a real defense can be damaged here, counsel is required: in Coleman v. Alabama (1970), a fractured decision announced by Justice Brennan, the Court held Alabama's preliminary hearing was a critical stage at which an indigent defendant was entitled to appointed counsel.

Arraignment and plea

Once an indictment or information is on file, the defendant is arraigned on it. Rule 10 makes arraignment brief and formal: in open court, the court ensures the defendant has a copy of the charging document, reads it or states its substance, and asks for a plea. Rule 11(a) supplies the choices: not guilty, guilty, or, with the court's consent, nolo contendere. One variant matters for the rest of the sequence. With the consent of the court and the government, a defendant may enter a conditional plea, pleading guilty while reserving in writing the right to have an appellate court review an adverse ruling on a specified pretrial motion, and may withdraw the plea if he wins. That is how a suppression ruling reaches an appellate court without a trial. How guilty pleas get negotiated, and what the Constitution requires of them, belongs to the plea-bargaining topic.

Discovery, and the duty that is not discovery

Two different things travel under the word 'disclosure,' and conflating them is a standard error. The first is rule-based discovery. Federal Rule 16 obliges the government, on request, to let the defense inspect documents and objects material to preparing the defense, that the government means to use in its case-in-chief, or that came from the defendant, plus examination and test results and written expert disclosures. It is much narrower than civil discovery. The second is constitutional. Brady v. Maryland (1963) held that suppression by the prosecution of evidence favorable to an accused who has requested it violates due process where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment, irrespective of the good faith or bad faith of the prosecution. Giglio v. United States (1972) extended that to evidence bearing on a witness's credibility, treating the prosecutor's office as a single entity, so an undisclosed leniency promise by one government lawyer counted though the trial attorney did not know of it. Materiality is still required. Rule 5(f) builds a reminder into the sequence, directing the judge, on the first court date with both counsel present, to order on the record that the Brady obligation be honored.

Pretrial motions

Between arraignment and trial the case is shaped by motions. Rule 12(b)(1) lets a party raise by pretrial motion any defense, objection, or request the court can decide without a trial on the merits, and Rule 12(b)(3) makes several mandatory before trial when the basis is reasonably available: defects in instituting the prosecution, defects in the charging document, severance, discovery disputes, and suppression of evidence. Suppression is the motion students meet most, because it is where Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendment law turns into a ruling with a consequence. What the exclusionary rule covers belongs to the constitutional-protections topic; the point here is structural. Suppression is litigated before trial, on a written motion and usually an evidentiary hearing, and is often the decisive event in a case that never reaches a jury. Rule 12(c) lets the court set a motions deadline at or after arraignment; absent one, the deadline is the start of trial.

The clocks

Federal timing is statutory, and it anchors the sequence. Under the Speedy Trial Act, 18 U.S.C. 3161(b), an information or indictment must be filed within 30 days of arrest or service of a summons, extended another 30 days for a felony charge if no grand jury has been in session in the district during that period. Under 3161(c)(1), trial must begin within 70 days of the charge being filed and made public or of the defendant's first appearance in the charging court, whichever is later. Section 3161(c)(2) sets a floor too: unless the defendant consents in writing, trial may not start less than 30 days after he first appears through counsel. Those clocks stop often. Section 3161(h) excludes, among much else, delay from any pretrial motion from filing through its disposition, competency proceedings, interlocutory appeals, and time spent considering a proposed plea agreement, which is why real cases run far longer than 70 calendar days. Section 3162 supplies the sanction, dismissal, with the court weighing the seriousness of the offense, the circumstances of the dismissal, and the effect of reprosecution in deciding whether it is with prejudice. States have their own speedy-trial statutes that do not match these numbers.

Trial, verdict, and after

If no plea resolves the case, it is tried; jury selection, evidence, and the burden of proof belong to the trial-and-sentencing topic. What matters here is what a verdict does not end. After a guilty verdict, Rule 29(c) gives the defendant 14 days to move for a judgment of acquittal for insufficient evidence, and Rule 33 gives 14 days to move for a new trial on other grounds, or three years if the ground is newly discovered evidence. Sentencing is a separate proceeding: Rule 32 ordinarily requires a probation officer's presentence report first, and afterward the court must advise the defendant of any right to appeal the conviction or the sentence. Direct appeal asks a higher court to review errors in the record of that case. is a different animal, a separate proceeding attacking a judgment that has already run its course on direct appeal. A state prisoner petitions a federal court under 28 U.S.C. 2254, must generally exhaust state remedies first, and on a claim a state court decided on the merits wins only by showing that decision was contrary to or an unreasonable application of clearly established Supreme Court law, or rested on an unreasonable determination of facts. A federal prisoner instead moves under 28 U.S.C. 2255 in the sentencing court, within one year.

One sequence, many systems

Two caveats keep this map honest. First, the trial stage is small. The United States Sentencing Commission reports that of the 66,662 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2025, 65,099 (97.7 percent) had pleaded guilty and 1,563 (2.3 percent) were convicted at trial; that denominator counts people sentenced, not cases filed, so it says nothing about dismissals or acquittals. The federal judiciary's own summary puts it loosely: more than 90 percent of defendants plead guilty rather than go to trial. Why so few cases reach a jury is the plea-bargaining topic's subject. Second, this is a federal template. As the Bureau of Justice Statistics puts it, there is no single criminal justice system in this country; there are many similar systems that are individually unique, cases may be handled differently in different jurisdictions, and the limits of official discretion vary from one to the next. Which institutions run each stage is the court-structure topic's subject. Use the federal sequence as the skeleton, then check the law of the jurisdiction you are actually reading about.

Eli, the EliExplains learning guide

Eli explains

The same idea, in plain words

Explain it like I’m 10

Instead of memorizing a list, notice that each stage asks one question and only one. Booking asks: who is this and what are they accused of? The probable-cause determination asks: is there enough reason to keep holding this person? The initial appearance asks: does this person know the accusation, and do they have a lawyer? Charging asks: what exactly will the government have to prove? The preliminary hearing or grand jury asks: is there enough here to make someone answer at all? Arraignment asks: how do you plead? Discovery asks: what does each side get to see? Pretrial motions ask: what evidence and charges survive? Trial asks: has the government proved it? Sentencing asks: what now? Appeal asks: did the court make a legal mistake? If you can name the question, you can place the stage.

Picture it like this

Think of an airport. Check-in confirms who you are, security decides whether you may go further, the gate agent checks that you belong on this specific flight, and boarding is the last point of no return. Nobody at security asks about your seat assignment, and nobody at the gate re-checks your passport photo. Each counter has one job, and skipping one is not an option.

Where the picture stops working

It breaks in three places. Everyone at an airport wants you on the plane; in a criminal case the two sides are adversaries and one of them is trying to stop the process. Almost every passenger boards, while almost no criminal case reaches trial. And airport steps run on published times that are the same in every terminal, whereas the names, deadlines, and even the existence of these stages change from one state to the next.

Worked example

Trace a federal timeline. A person is arrested without a warrant on a Tuesday morning on suspicion of a felony. Booking happens that afternoon; no judge has reviewed anything yet. Under County of Riverside v. McLaughlin, a probable-cause determination should come as soon as reasonably feasible and no later than Thursday morning. A complaint is filed and the initial appearance happens Wednesday, where the magistrate states the charge, advises the defendant of the right to counsel, and appoints a federal defender; the Sixth Amendment right has now attached under Rothgery. No plea is taken. The Speedy Trial Act now runs two clocks: under 18 U.S.C. 3161(b) an indictment or information must be filed within 30 days of the arrest, and under 3161(c)(1) trial must begin within 70 days of the later of the charge being filed and made public or the first appearance in the charging court. A grand jury indicts on day 22, and the defendant is arraigned and pleads not guilty. Defense counsel files a motion to suppress on day 40. From that filing until the court disposes of the motion, 3161(h)(1)(D) excludes the time, so the 70-day clock pauses and the calendar trial date moves later without any speedy-trial violation. Now change one fact: no charge is filed by day 31, and no grand jury has been in session in the district during that period. Section 3161(b) extends the filing period by an additional 30 days in exactly that circumstance for a person charged with a felony, so there is still no violation.

Key takeaway

A United States criminal case is an ordered set of checkpoints, each answering one question, and knowing the order is what makes the doctrine legible; the federal sequence is the clearest model, but grand juries, deadlines, and even the names of the hearings change by jurisdiction, and almost no case travels the whole road to trial.

Quick check

3 questions here, of 5 in this lesson’s practice set. Answers stay hidden until you check.

Question 1 of 3foundational

Which Supreme Court decision set the 48-hour presumption for a judicial probable-cause determination after a warrantless arrest?

Choose an answer, then check it.
Question 2 of 3intermediate

Why did the Court in Gerstein v. Pugh hold that the post-arrest probable-cause determination does not require appointed counsel?

Choose an answer, then check it.
Question 3 of 3intermediate

A person is arrested on a federal felony complaint on March 3. No grand jury has been in session in the district since then, and no information or indictment has been filed by April 10. Under the Speedy Trial Act, what is the situation?

Choose an answer, then check it.
Practice all 5

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Study tools & related lessonsYou’ll learn to · Common mistakes · Easily confused · Key vocabulary · Related

You’ll learn to

  • Put the stages of a United States criminal case in order from arrest through appeal and state what each stage decides.
  • Distinguish the Fourth Amendment probable-cause determination from the preliminary hearing and from arraignment.
  • Explain why grand jury indictment is required for federal felonies but not for state prosecutions.
  • Distinguish Rule 16 discovery from the constitutional disclosure duty imposed by Brady and Giglio.
  • Apply the Speedy Trial Act's 30-day and 70-day clocks to a simple federal timeline.
  • Analyze why the trial stage accounts for so little of the system's actual work.

Common mistakes

  • Reading County of Riverside v. McLaughlin as a rule that a probable-cause determination within 48 hours is automatically fine.

    It is a presumption running both ways. Inside 48 hours the arrested person can still prove unreasonable delay; outside 48 hours the government carries the burden of showing a bona fide emergency or other extraordinary circumstance, and the Court said intervening weekends do not qualify.

  • Treating the Gerstein probable-cause determination and the preliminary hearing as the same event.

    They ask similar questions but are different proceedings. Gerstein's determination is nonadversary, can rest on informal proof, and carries no right to appointed counsel; the preliminary hearing is adversary, allows cross-examination, and was held in Coleman v. Alabama to be a critical stage requiring counsel.

  • Assuming every felony case in the United States goes before a grand jury.

    The Fifth Amendment grand jury clause binds the federal government, and Federal Rule 7 requires indictment for offenses punishable by death or more than a year unless the defendant waives it. Hurtado v. California held the Fourteenth Amendment does not impose that requirement on the states, and many states charge felonies by information after a magistrate's examination.

  • Filing Brady under discovery rules and stopping there.

    Rule 16 is a procedural rule with defined categories and a request requirement. Brady and Giglio impose a constitutional due process duty to disclose favorable, material evidence, including evidence undermining a government witness's credibility, whatever the discovery rules say and regardless of the prosecutor's good faith.

  • Using 'appeal' for everything that happens after conviction.

    Direct appeal reviews claimed legal errors in the record of the case. Collateral review is a separate action attacking a judgment that has already been through direct appeal, governed for state prisoners by 28 U.S.C. 2254 with an exhaustion requirement and a deferential standard, and for federal prisoners by a 28 U.S.C. 2255 motion in the sentencing court.

Easily confused

Gerstein probable-cause determination vs. Preliminary hearing

Gerstein's determination is a Fourth Amendment check on continued detention, decided without an adversary hearing and without appointed counsel; the preliminary hearing is an adversary screening of the charge with cross-examination, and counsel is constitutionally required.

Information vs. Indictment

An information is filed on a prosecutor's signature; an indictment requires a grand jury to vote, with at least 12 of the 16 to 23 federal grand jurors concurring.

Rule 16 discovery vs. Brady and Giglio disclosure

Rule 16 is a procedural rule listing categories the government must produce on request; Brady and Giglio impose a constitutional duty to disclose favorable, material evidence, including impeachment material, whether or not any rule reaches it.

Initial appearance vs. Arraignment

The initial appearance follows arrest, addresses rights, counsel, and release, and takes no plea; arraignment follows the filing of an indictment or information and exists precisely to take a plea.

Direct appeal vs. Collateral review

Direct appeal reviews the record of the case in the ordinary appellate chain; collateral review is a separate proceeding under 28 U.S.C. 2254 or 2255 after that chain is exhausted, with its own limitation periods and standards.

Key vocabulary

Booking
The administrative intake that follows an arrest, recording identity and the alleged offense and usually taking fingerprints, photographs, and an inventory of property; no judge is involved.
Gerstein determination
A judicial finding that probable cause supports continued detention after a warrantless arrest, made on informal proof without an adversary hearing and without a right to appointed counsel.
Initial appearance
The first court hearing after arrest, at which a judge states the accusation, gives the required advice of rights, addresses release or detention, and takes up representation.
Information
A charging document signed and filed by a prosecutor, accusing a person of an offense without any vote by a grand jury.
Indictment
A charge returned by a grand jury after the required number of its members vote that the evidence is sufficient to make the accused answer.
Preliminary hearing
An adversary proceeding at which a judge decides whether probable cause justifies holding the accused for further proceedings; the defense may cross-examine but may not argue that evidence was unlawfully obtained.
Arraignment
The open-court hearing at which the accused receives the charging document, hears the charge read or summarized, and is asked to plead.
Brady material
Evidence favorable to the accused and material to guilt or punishment, which due process requires the prosecution to disclose regardless of its good or bad faith.
Motion to suppress
A pretrial request asking the court to bar the government from using specified evidence, on the ground that obtaining it violated the defendant's rights.
Collateral review
A separate proceeding attacking a conviction or sentence after direct appeal has run, brought by habeas petition for a state prisoner or by motion in the sentencing court for a federal one.

Sources & references

  1. Gerstein v. Pugh, 420 U.S. 103 (1975) — U.S. Government Publishing Office, govinfo (United States Reports volume 420)
  2. County of Riverside v. McLaughlin, 500 U.S. 44 (1991) — U.S. Government Publishing Office, govinfo (United States Reports volume 500)
  3. Rothgery v. Gillespie County, Texas, 554 U.S. 191 (2008) — U.S. Government Publishing Office, govinfo (United States Reports volume 554)
  4. Coleman v. Alabama, 399 U.S. 1 (1970) — U.S. Government Publishing Office, govinfo (United States Reports volume 399)
  5. Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963) — U.S. Government Publishing Office, govinfo (United States Reports volume 373)
  6. Giglio v. United States, 405 U.S. 150 (1972) — U.S. Government Publishing Office, govinfo (United States Reports volume 405)
  7. Hurtado v. California, 110 U.S. 516 (1884) — Library of Congress, United States Reports volume 110 (official bound-volume scan)
  8. California Constitution, article I, section 14 (prosecution of felonies; taking before a magistrate) — California Legislative Information (Office of Legislative Counsel)
  9. Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure (effective March 21, 1946, as amended to December 1, 2025) — Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (uscourts.gov)
  10. 18 U.S.C. 3161 - Time limits and exclusions — Office of the Law Revision Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives (uscode.house.gov)
  11. 18 U.S.C. 3162 - Sanctions — Office of the Law Revision Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives (uscode.house.gov)
  12. 28 U.S.C. 2254 - State custody; remedies in Federal courts — Office of the Law Revision Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives (uscode.house.gov)
  13. 28 U.S.C. 2255 - Federal custody; remedies on motion attacking sentence — Office of the Law Revision Counsel, U.S. House of Representatives (uscode.house.gov)
  14. Criminal Cases — Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts (uscourts.gov)
  15. Steps in the Federal Criminal Process: Charging — U.S. Department of Justice, Offices of the United States Attorneys
  16. The Justice System — Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice
  17. Sourcebook of Federal Sentencing Statistics, Fiscal Year 2025, Table 12: Guilty Pleas and Trials by Type of Crime — United States Sentencing Commission
  18. The Bill of Rights: A Transcription — U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

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Researched 2026-08-19

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