New York Criminal Process: Arraignment

Court Appearance
When a charge is filed against a person for criminal offence, he or she has to appear at a court in New York and this process is known as arraignment. Arraignment has to take place within 72 hours of imprisonment. The arrested person during arraignment has to offer plea to the crime he has been charged with.

Types of Pleas
There are various types of pleas in the New York criminal process. When a person pleads guilty, he admits his committing the crime and involvement in the facts of the crime. An accused person may also plead not guilty thereby denying his commission of the crime he has been charged with. Such a plea leads to fixing of a pre-trial or trial date. Another type of plea is when a person charged with committing a crime does not plead guilty but at the same time does not dispute the charge. This is known as “no contest” plea. No contest plea has advantage over guilty plea in that the latter can be used against the person booked for a crime subsequently in the court of law. New York law also allows a person charged with crime to remain mute and not making any plea (mute plea). New York criminal law treats this mute plea as equivalent to not guilty plea. In mute plea there is no admission of crime or regularness of proceedings by the person charged up to the point of making plea. The person therefore can contest all previous proceedings as irregular.

Bail
The criminal court in New York may either set or decline to set bail during the process of arraignment. The court may also release the person on his giving personal recognizance to the court. This the court accepts as the person’s commitment to appear at the court whenever warranted during later proceedings.