Bail and Jury Selection on 2nd degree murder

NikkiSloan said:

Two multi-part questions regarding Circuit Court trials in So. Florida.

Bail for character charged with 2nd degree homicide:
I've seen reference to pre-trial bail. If nothing changes, would bail be extended to allow the defendant to stay out on bail during his/her jury trial? If not, when does the pre-trial bail end - eg. at jury selection or Day One of a jury trial?

Bail can be granted or modified at any point prior to sentencing. And depending upon the circumstances, bail can be granted through appeals. Usually you would not change bail immediately before trial. A defendant in custody is a pain in the butt for the bailiffs, for a bunch of different reasons. Only reason you'd cancel it immediately before trial is major misconduct by the defendant.

Normally bail will be ended when the jury gives its verdict. This will be done after the jury is dismissed from the courtroom and escorted back to the jury room. This is done during the time gap to the jury of waiting in the jury room until the judge comes in to thank them. Sometimes the judge will revoke the defendant's bail prior to the jury leaving the room. But it's not a big issue to wait a few minutes, as the bailiffs immediately block the doors (subtly) as soon as the jury says "guilty." The bailiffs know what's coming down.

Jury Selection:
In my limited experience, the trial begins soon after jury selection is complete. Is this typical for a homicide trial?
If the trial has been scheduled and the jurors chosen, but something comes up causing a short (days or weeks) delay in the trial start date ... would the jury selection begin again from a fresh pool or would they call the originally selected jurors to sit?

Jury selection is only done after the parties have the case prepared, or the judge isn't going to grant any more continuances. The judge and attorneys already have blocked out the expected length of the trial in their calendars. Very rarely something major will come up, like a death in family or illness, but this is only going to be for a couple of days. If the trial has to be delayed for weeks, it will be continued and a new jury will be selected.

New evidence that comes up has to be dealt with around the trial. You meet with new witnesses after court or early in the morning. Very, very rarely will something come up that requires the trial to be continued and the jury will be called back after that continuance.

Thanks in advance!

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