I just read the news about Martha Stewart. It said sentencing is scheduled for June 17. Why is there so much time between a verdict and sentencing? Is this usual?
If somebody pleads guilty to a lesser charge, and a sentence is included in the plea agreement, then there’s no reason for delay, and there usually isn’t one. But for a conviction by trial, the judge usually wants to consider all the factors of the case before deciding on a sentence. Perhaps he/she will also call for a presentencing report. All this takes time, and when you add it to all the other cases in the docket, at various stages of the criminal proceeding life cycle, it’s understandable.
Only sort of OT… on “Law & order” they have trial parts going up to 47 - what might the trial parts be and why so many of them?
That’s an odd feature of New York criminal courts, which is explained briefly in this thread.
This is close to right. In federal court, there is always a three-month gap between conviction and sentencing whether the conviction is the result of a trial or a guilty plea. The purpose of this gap is to allow the United States Probation Office to conduct a presentence investigation into the defendant’s background and criminal history and to write a presentence report which summarizes the results of the investigation and, most importantly, contains the probation officer’s calculation of the sentencing range required by the United States Sentencing Guidelines. In federal criminal law, its all about the Guidelines.