Tennessee Criminal Lawyer Blog

Tennessee criminal defense lawyers understand that the criminal procedures may be confusing. Tennessee criminal defense attorneys have helped many clients in different areas including homicide, drugs, DUI, assault, juvenile cases, and traffic citations. Whenever you are charged with a crime, you always want to be informed about the different stages of the criminal process.

A criminal accused is usually entitled to a preliminary hearing. A preliminary hearing is an adversary proceeding presided over by a judge without a jury. A criminal defense attorney and a prosecutor are present at the preliminary hearing. The usual purpose of this hearing is to determine whether there is probable cause to believe that (1) a crime was committed and (2) the accused committed it. This probable cause determination is designed to ensure that citizens do not have to endure the rigors and expenses of a criminal trial when there is not enough proof to satisfy the minimal probable cause standard.

Whether a particular defendant is entitled to a preliminary hearing may depend on the particular procedural posture of the case. If probable cause is found at the preliminary hearing, the case is bound over or transferred to a grand jury. If probable cause is not found, the case is dismissed but ordinarily can be brought again before the same or a different judge or can sometimes be presented to the grand jury anyway. If the grand jury issues an indictment, the case will be scheduled for trial.

Because the probable cause standard is quite low, only rarely is probable cause not found. Accordingly, often defense counsel will not make a serious effort to use the preliminary hearing to have all or some of the charges dismissed. Instead, the defense lawyer will sometimes focus on discovering information about the prosecution’s case. Although the defense has the option of calling witnesses, usually the defense will call no witnesses and instead will spend its time cross-examining prosecution witnesses to discover their knowledge of the case. This enables the defense to learn something about the prosecution’s case without disclosing much, if anything, about the defense’s strategy and proof. Criminal Procedure: The Post-Investigative Process, Cases And Materials 11-12 (Neil P. Cohen & Donald J. Hall, 2nd ed., Lexis 2000).

If you are charged with a crime in Tennessee, contact a criminal defense attorney. A criminal defense attorney will explain the different procedural avenues applicable in your case. Our offices handle criminal cases in Knoxville, Sevierville, Pigeon Forge, Gatlinburg, Maryville, Newport, Johnson City, and Morristown.