Revocation Hearings
For most criminal defendants, avoiding jail time by any means possible is considered a "win" in their case. Fortunately, Tennesseans currently have many methods for doing just that available to them in the form of probationary sentences, judicial diversions, and the soon-to-be-extinct pretrial diversion that can be granted to a defendant by agreement of the prosecutor and the defendant's attorney. These types of alternative sentences usually allow a defendant to avoid serving any jail time by serving an extended probationary sentence, obeying a laundry list of conditions, and paying any requisite fines or court costs. Most defendants are able to follow the terms of their alternative sentences and can thus avoid jail times. Those who are not so able will find themselves subjected to a revocation hearing.
A revocation hearing is essentially a hearing at which the state (or prosecution) asks the court to revoke a defendant's alternative sentence and serve some time, usually the remainder of the person's sentence, in jail. Many criminal defendants attend these hearings seemingly unaware of the seriousness of their situation, perhaps because it is not an official criminal trial. It is important for Tennesseans to understand that a revocation hearing is serious business; often, defendant's who are found to have violated the terms of their probation can be taken directly to jail.
It is also important to recognize that the nature of a revocation hearing (the chance that a person may go to jail) gives rise to all of the constitutional protections afforded criminal defendants in this state. For example, in a case called State v. Frazier the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals recently rules that a defendant at a revocation hearing was entitled to present witnesses in his favor, cross-examine the state's witnesses, and have the court make written or oral findings regarding the evidence it relied on in revoking the defendant's probation, just as if the defendant had actually been the subject of a criminal trial.
Whether you may be in the preliminary stages of a criminal investigation or are being forced into court for a revocation hearing, it is never too early or late to seek the assistance of skilled criminal defense counsel in East Tennessee.
Source: State v. Frazier, 36 TAM 26-29, 5/4/11, Jackson, Glenn, 4 pages
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