How are federal drug trials different from state drug trials?

First, multi-defendant trials in Texas state courts are almost non-existent. However, most federal drug cases involve more than one defendant and a conspiracy charge. The court will instruct the jury that it must consider the guilt of each defendant separately. Thus, in many federal drug trials, there are complex dynamics in play. One defendant may attempt to shift blame to another defendant. Another defendant may employ a strategy of being relatively “invisible,” letting the focus of the trial fall on a co-defendant.

Another way in which federal trials are different from state court trials is that most federal judges only permit the lawyers to have minimal interaction with the prospective jurors during the jury selection process. Because the lawyers are not permitted to ask probing questions and interact with the jury pool as they are in Texas courts, most state court lawyers feel disempowered during the federal jury selection process and consider the federal process somewhat of a “crapshoot.”

Given these complexities, it is important to hire a Dallas drug crime lawyer with extensive experience trying cases in both state and federal court.