Over the last 20 years, the number of pre-trial hearings and post-conviction proceedings has grown in our criminal courts. At present, there are approximately 30 pre-trial hearings, some of which can lead to a disposition of the case without the necessity of a trial. Recently, a new hearing was mandated as a result of People v. Suazo, ___ N.Y.3d ___, 2018 N.Y. Slip Op 08056 (2018), in which the New York Court of Appeals held, in a 5-2 decision, that a noncitizen defendant charged with a deportable class B misdemeanor (maximum of three months in jail) is entitled to a jury trial under the Sixth Amendment, even though the maximum authorized sentence is a term of imprisonment of less than six months.

The Sixth Amendment provides that in all criminal prosecutions a defendant is entitled to a trial by jury. In Duncan v. Louisiana, 391 U.S. 145 (1968), the Supreme Court applied the U.S. Constitution’s right to a jury trial to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment and held that, pursuant to the Sixth Amendment, a defendant accused of a “serious” crime (as opposed to a “petty” crime) is afforded the right to a trial by jury. Two years later, the court defined a “serious crime”, for purposes of the Sixth Amendment, as a crime for which the maximum period of incarceration is more than six months. Baldwin v. New York, 399 U.S. 66 (1970).

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