How Long Between Arrest and Trial in Federal Court
Welcome to Spodek Law Group. Our goal is to give you the reality of what happens between a federal arrest and trial - not the sanitized version prosecutors present, not the civics textbook fiction, but the actual truth about what you're facing when the federal government decides to come after you. This is information that could determine the next decade of your life.
The Speedy Trial Act says you get a trial within 70 days. That sounds reasonable. Protective, even. What the law doesn't advertise is that the 70-day clock contains so many pause buttons that the average federal case takes 12 to 18 months to reach trial. Some take years. The clock stops more than it runs, and every day it's stopped is a day you're trapped in the federal system's grip - losing your job, your savings, your relationships, and quite possibly your will to fight.
Here's the thing nobody tells you when they read you your rights: the "speedy trial" guarantee is actually a pressure system designed to break you. As Todd Spodek explains to clients facing federal charges, the government has already been building your case for months or years before you knew you were a target. You find out at arrest. They've been preparing since before your last birthday. That asymmetry isn't an accident. It's architecture.
The 70-Day Myth That Everyone Believes
Seventy days sounds manageable. You can survive 70 days. Your family can hold on for 70 days. Your job might still be there in 70 days. But heres were people get confused - and were the federal government absolutely counts on them being confused.
The 70-day clock under 18 U.S.C. 3161 isnt a countdown. Its a stopwatch that pauses constantly. File a pretrial motion? Clock stops. Need a competency evaluation? Clock stops. Your attorney requests more discovery time? Clock stops. Co-defendant's lawyer has a scheduling conflict? Clock stops for everyone. Judge takes a motion "under advisement"? Clock stops for up to 30 days. The government files an interlocutory appeal? That clock might stop for years.
In the Loud Hawk case that reached the Supreme Court, the delay was 90 months. Thats seven and a half years. And the Court said the government wasnt to blame because the delays came from appeals. Nevermind that the government initiated those appeals. The rules protecting defendants somehow always manage to protect the prosecution.
One study looking at federal courts found the average pretrial detention - meaning time spent in jail before any conviction - was 135 days. Not 70. Nearly five months. And thats the average. Your probably wondering how 70 becomes 135 becomes 18 months. Its actualy quite simple once you understand how the system really operates.
How The Clock Stops: 9 Ways to Freeze Time
The Speedy Trial Act contains nine major categories of "excludable time" - periods where the clock simply doesnt run. Each category sounds reasonable in isolation. Together, they ensure the 70-day promise is basicly meaningless.
Pretrial motions. From the moment your attorney files any motion until the hearing concludes, excluded. Most cases involve multiple motions. Defense motions to suppress evidence. Government motions in limine. Motions to compel discovery. Each one freezes time.
Time under advisement. After a hearing, the judge can take up to 30 days to decide. Per motion. Five motions with 30 days each adds 150 days to your "70-day" case right there.
Competency examinations. Mental health evaluations, physical capacity determinations - all excluded. These can take months.
Interlocutory appeals. Either side appeals a ruling before trial? Excluded. The Loud Hawk case shows this can mean years.
Co-defendant delays. Charged with someone else? Congratulations - there delays are now your delays. Their attorney's vacation schedule becomes your additional jail time.
Unavailability. Defendant unavailable? Excluded. Essential witness unavailable? Excluded. Government claims a witness is sick? Excluded. The prosecution controls who they call "essential."
Transportation. Bringing you from another district? Excluded. Moving you between facilities? Excluded.
Case transfers. Venue changes, jurisdiction questions - all excluded while being resolved.
"Ends of justice" continuances. This is the catch-all. The judge can grant additional time whenever they determine it serves "the ends of justice." In practice, this means whenever its convienent for the government.
OK so heres what this looks like in reality. Your charged in February. Attorney files suppression motion in March - clock stops. Hearing in April, decision in May - clock restarts. Government files motion in June - clock stops. Hearing in August - clock restarts. Your co-defendant's attorney requests continuance in September - clock stops for everyone. By December your still waiting, and the "70 days" has only ticked off maybe 25 actual days.
What 76% Pretrial Detention Really Means
Heres the part that transforms this from legal technicality into human catastrophe: 76% of federal defendants are detained pretrial.
Let that sink in.
Three out of four people charged in federal court sit in jail - legally innocent - while waiting for the trial they were promised.
The presumption of innocence is a beautiful legal fiction. The reality is a cell. Its commissary prices that would make airport gift shops blush. Its phone calls at rates designed to bankrupt families. Its missing your daughter's graduation, your son's first day of school, your mother's last breath.
The government pays roughly $92 per day to keep you locked up pretrial. Supervision costs about $11 per day. And heres the kicker: 86% of defendants released pretrial show up for court and commit no new violations. Were paying premium prices for incarceration that serves no public safety purpose.
But wait - it does serve a purpose. Just not a public one.
Research from the Prison Policy Initiative shows that pretrial detention increases guilty pleas by 46%. Almost half more likely to plead guilty when your sitting in a cell then when your sleeping in your own bed.
At Spodek Law Group, we've watched this play out hundreds of times. Day 30, the client is determined to fight. Day 90, there starting to waver. Day 180, there asking about plea deals. Not because there guilty. Because there human. Because there family is suffering. Because there savings are gone. Because another six months in pretrial detention feels worse then pleading to something they didnt do.
The Trial Penalty: Why 98% Plead Guilty
Heres were the math becomes absolutly devastating.
Federal court isnt a trial system. Its a plea system that occasionally produces trials. In 2022, only 2.5% of federal convictions came from trial. The rest - nearly 98% - were guilty pleas.
Why would so many people plead guilty? Because the alternative is mathematical insanity.
The "trial penalty" is what practitioners call the massive difference between plea sentences and trial sentences. On average, defendants convicted at trial receive sentences three times longer then those who plead guilty. In some cases, the multiplier is eight or ten times.
Think about that. Plead guilty to drug trafficking: maybe 5 years. Go to trial on the exact same charges, get convicted, and your looking at 15 to 50 years. Same crime. Same evidence. The only difference is you exercised your constitutional right to a jury trial.
The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers calls this "coercion." The Supreme Court has called plea bargaining "the criminal justice system" since it handles 98% of cases. What they wont call it is what it actualy is: a system were your "right" to trial costs 3-10x more years of your life if you use it.
You have the right to a trial. You also have the right to remain silent. In federal court, both rights come with a price tag that would make most people reconsider immediately.
The Vera Institute documented that people who are detained pretrial are not just more likely to plead guilty - there also more likely to be convicted and receive longer sentences even when they go to trial. Detention becomes a predictor of outcome independant of actual guilt.
When "Your" Delays Aren't Yours
One of the most frustrating aspects of the federal system is how other peoples decisions become your punishment.
Charged in a conspiracy? Multi-defendant case? Your fate is now tied to everyone else's timeline. If your co-defendant's attorney needs three months to review discovery, you wait. If they're negotiating a cooperation agreement, you wait. If there deciding wheather to flip and testify against you, you wait - giving them time to build the case that destroys you.
This isnt hypothetical. Consider what happens: Your arrested with two others in a fraud case. Your ready to go to trial - you have nothing to hide. But Co-defendant One is considering cooperating. There attorney files motion after motion, buying time while negotiations continue. Co-defendant Two has a public defender buried under 80 other cases, and they need continuances just to review the evidence.
Meanwhile, your clock is stopped. Your sitting in pretrial detention at $92 per day (to taxpayers, but costing you your freedom). Months pass. Eventually Co-defendant One flips. Now the government has a cooperating witness against you - a witness they aquired because the delay gave them time to pressure and flip your co-defendant.
The Speedy Trial Act calls this "excludable time attributable to a codefendant." In plain English: other peoples decisions extend your suffering, and theres nothing you can do about it.
Real Cases, Real Delays: When "Speedy" Meant Years
The Supreme Court has tolerated remarkable delays while claiming to protect speedy trial rights.
In Doggett v. United States, Marc Doggett was indicted in 1980 for drug trafficking. The government simply... didnt arrest him. For eight and a half years. He lived openly, worked, paid taxes, had a family. In 1988, the DEA randomly discovered him during an unrelated credit check and finally made the arrest.
The Supreme Court found this violated the Sixth Amendment - but only because of the "extraordinary" length. Eight and a half years was too long. Think about that threshold. The system tolerated 8+ years before calling it excessive.
In United States v. Loud Hawk, defendants waited 90 months - seven and a half years - while various appeals worked through the courts. The Supreme Court said this wasnt the government's fault because the delays resulted from litigation. Litigation initiated by both sides, yes - but delays that only hurt the defense.
These cases establish that "speedy" is elastic. One year? Routine. Two years? Common. Three years? Sometimes necessary. The law says 70 days. The courts say patience is a virtue.
Heres the reality that practitioners know: if your case takes 18 months, no court will blink. The excludable time provisions were written precisely to ensure this.
The Cascade: From Arrest to Forced Plea
Let me walk you through what actualy happens. Not the textbook version. The human version.
Day 1: Federal agents arrest you at dawn. Guns drawn. Neighbors watching. You're taken to a detention facility. Your world ends.
Day 3: Detention hearing. The government argues your a flight risk, a danger to the community, or both. Statistics say 76% chance the judge agrees. Your detained.
Day 14: You've lost your job. Employers dont wait for trials. Your rent is due and your not there to pay it.
Day 30: First court appearance. Motions filed. Clock stops. Your attorney explains this could take a year. Maybe more.
Day 60: Your savings are gone. Commissary, phone calls, lawyer fees. Your spouse is working double shifts. Your kids are asking when daddy's coming home.
Day 90: The prosecutor offers a plea. Plead guilty, get credit for time served, go home next month. Fight it, stay locked up another year, risk 10-15 years if you lose at trial. The math is obvious. The pressure is immense.
Day 120: Co-defendant flips. Now they have a witness who says you knew everything. Your defense just got significantly harder.
Day 180: You've been in pretrial detention for six months. "Innocent until proven guilty." Your daughter had a birthday without you. Your marriage is strained to breaking.
Day 270: New plea offer. Slightly worse then the last one. Prosecutor knows your weakening. There not wrong.
Day 365: A year in pretrial detention. You've watched the government's case strengthen while your life disintegrated. The trial date is still months away.
At some point - and this point comes for 98% of federal defendants - the calculation becomes clear. Plead guilty and go home. Fight and risk decades. Even innocent people eventually do the math.
What Actually Happens Behind The 70-Day Promise
The Speedy Trial Act was passed in 1974 with genuinely good intentions. Congress recognized that delayed justice is denied justice. They set what seemed like reasonable limits.
But the excludable time provisions created loopholes that swallowed the rule. And the system evolved to exploit them.
Prosecutors benefit from delay. More time means more investigation, more pressure on co-defendants to cooperate, more chances for defendants to make mistakes or crack under detention's weight. Every continuance is another opportunity to strengthen the government's case.
Defense attorneys sometimes benefit from delay too - more time to prepare, more time to investigate. But this benefit is theoretical when your client is detained. You can have all the time in the world to prepare a defense for someone whose already been destroyed by pretrial incarceration.
Judges benefit from cases that settle. Trials take weeks. Plea hearings take minutes. Every plea is one less case clogging the docket.
The defendant? The defendant benefits from exactly nothing about delay - except the rare cases where witnesses disappear or evidence degrades. For the 76% sitting in pretrial detention, every day of delay is another day of punishment before conviction.
Consider the psychology behind this. When someone is first arrested, there in shock but often determind to fight. There certain of there innocence or at least there defenses. They have savings. They have family support. They have hope.
But hope has a half-life in a federal detention facility. Every week that passes erodes something - finanical security, family relationships, employment prospects, mental health. The system doesnt need to prove anything. It just needs to wait. Time itself becomes the prosecutorial weapon that no defense attorney can counter.
This is why experienced federal defense lawyers will tell you that the bail hearing is often more important then the trial. Win release, and you can fight from a position of strength - working, maintaining relationships, participating in your defense. Lose the bail hearing, and every day of delay chips away at your capacity to resist the plea offer that inevitably comes.
What You Can Actually Do
If your reading this because federal charges are a possibility in your life - or already a reality - heres what matters now.
First: understand that time is not your friend in this system. The government has already used time against you. Your investigation was months or years old before you knew it existed. Every day between now and your first attorney conversation is time wasted.
Second: pretrial release is everything. Being detained pretrial versus being released pretrial is one of the strongest predictors of case outcome. Fight for release. Get an attorney who knows how to argue detention hearings. This single decision may matter more then anything else.
Third: understand the plea calculus early. Not because you should necessarily plead guilty - but because understanding the mathematics helps you make informed decisions rather than desperate ones. Know what your facing at trial. Know what your facing in a plea. Make the choice with clear eyes.
Fourth: every motion, every continuance, every delay must be weighed against its cost. More time to prepare your defense is worthless if that time destroys your family, your career, your will to fight.
The federal criminal justice system processes 98% of cases through guilty pleas. You can be in the 2% that goes to trial - but only if you understand what your actually facing, start preparing immediately, and get representation from attorneys who know how federal court really works.
The clock started when you learned about this. It started before you knew it was running. Call Spodek Law Group at 212-300-5196. The next conversation could determine whether your one of the 2% who fights - or the 98% who does the math and decides the system has already won.
That window is closing. What happens in the next 48 hours matters more than what happens in the next 48 months. Every day you wait is another day the government builds while you wonder.
The Speedy Trial Act promises 70 days. The system delivers 18 months. The question isnt how long between arrest and trial. The question is how long your willing to wait while your life falls apart - and weather youll have anything left when the trial finally comes.
