What Happens After Federal Indictment - Timeline Explained

The law says your federal trial must begin within 70 days of indictment. The reality is 12 to 24 months - sometimes longer. The gap between what the Speedy Trial Act promises and what actually happens is where federal cases are won, lost, and ground into dust.

You probably found this article because a grand jury just handed down an indictment with your name on it. Maybe federal agents showed up at your door. Maybe your lawyer called with news you were hoping to never hear. Either way, you want to know what happens next - and every website you've found gives you a sanitized timeline that has nothing to do with how federal prosecution actually works. Welcome to Spodek Law Group. We're going to tell you the truth.

That 70-day promise? It's real - on paper. In practice, the federal system has so many ways to stop the clock that the timeline becomes meaningless. And heres the part nobody tells you: defendants often request these delays themselves, because rushing to trial without proper preparation is suicide. The system traps you either way.

The 70-Day Promise Nobody Keeps

The Speedy Trial Act of 1974 was supposed to protect defendants from languishing in legal limbo. Congress wrote the law to guarantee that your trial begins within 70 days of indictment or your first court appearance, whichever comes later. It sounds straightforward.

It's not.

The same law that promises 70 days contains a list of exclusions that can stretch your case for years. Filing a pretrial motion? The clock stops from the moment the motion is filed until the judge rules - which can take months. Your attorney needs more time to review discovery? The clock stops. The government needs an "ends of justice" continuance? Clock stops. Your co-defendant has a scheduling conflict? Clock stops. Mental competency evaluation? Clock stops.

By the time you account for all the exclusions, that 70-day guarantee becomes a polite suggestion.

And look at the numbers. According to Pew Research Center data from 2022, 97% of federal defendants plead guilty. Only 2.5% actually went to trial. Of those who went to trial, just 0.4% were aquitted. Thats less than one in two hundred defendants who fight their case and win. The remaining 2.1% went to trial and lost. This isn't a justice system - its an assembly line designed to produce guilty pleas.

Here's the thing most people miss: defendants don't plead guilty because there guilty. They plead guilty because the alternative is worse. Consider Martha Stewart. Indicted June 2003. Trial started January 2004. Convicted March 2004. Sentenced July 2004. Thirteen months from indictment to prison - relativley fast for a federal case. She didn't fight the timeline aggressivly. She took what they offered. The cases that stretch to 18-24 months are the ones where defendants actually try to defend themselves.

Why Most People Never See a Courtroom

The federal system isnt designed to produce trials. It's designed to produce guilty pleas. And it's remarkably good at it.

The "trial penalty" is the most powerful weapon prosecutors have. NACDL research shows that defendants who go to trial receive sentences aproximately three times longer than defendants who plead guilty for identical conduct. Sometimes eight to ten times longer. You're not just risking conviction - you're risking years of additional prison time for exercising the constitutional right you learned about in high school civics.

Meanwhile, 76.3% of federal defendants remain detained through the entire case. The "presumption of innocence" might exist in the courtroom, but it dosent exist in the jail cell where most defendants experience federal prosecution. They sit. They wait. They watch their lives collapse.

And pretrial detention isn't just uncomfortable - its coercive. Vera Institute research found that detention increases a persons likelihood of pleading guilty by 46%. Almost half. The government knows this. Thats why they fight bail so hard in serious cases. Deny release, watch the defendant break, accept the plea. It's not justice. Its architecture.

The consequence cascade is brutal:

• Miss a court date and theres a bench warrant
• Get arrested on that warrant and now your in a detention hearing
• Bail gets revoked
• Now your sitting in a cell
• Your case takes longer because your attorney cant meet with you as easily
• You loose your job
• You cant pay rent
• Your family loses their housing
• Every month that passes, the plea bargain looks more attractive

This is by design.

We get it. We really do. The position your in feels impossible. The system seems rigged. In many ways, it is. But understanding how the timeline actually works - not the sanitized version, the real one - is the first step toward navigating it.

Finding Leverage in a Stacked System

So what can you actually do when the deck is stacked this hard?

Heres the paradox nobody explains: those timeline delays that seem like torture? They can also be leverage. Defense attorneys often request exclusions because the alternative - rushing to trial without proper preparation - destroys cases. You need time to review discovery. You need time to investigate. You need time to file motions that might suppress evidence or dismiss charges. Sprinting toward trial sounds good until you realize what it costs.