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Arraignment and the Discovery Process
If the State Attorneys Office files charges, those charges will be filed at or before “arraignment”. Arraignment is a court hearing whereby the charges against the defendant are read in open court unless reading is waived, and the defendant is required to enter a plea of “guilty” or “not guilty” or “no contest”. If a not guilty plea is entered, the case is set for trial and “discovery” begins.
“Discovery” is the process whereby the State Attorneys office is obligated to turn over all police reports and documents that will be used in their prosecution. They all must over turn over a witness list. Once the witness list is turned over, the defendant is permitted to take “depositions” of all the State witnesses and of other individuals that could help the defense. A deposition is a proceeding where the defense attorney can ask individual questions of the witness, and the witness must answer the questions under oath. Depositions are the single most important discovery tool in a state criminal case.