Introduction

Motions for a New Trial

Introduction

A guilty verdict does not leave the defendant with only an appeal. Several motions remain available in the trial court, and each asks the judge a different question. A motion for a judgment of acquittal under Rule 29 contends that, with the evidence viewed in the light most favorable to the prosecution, no rational jury could have found guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and a judge who agrees enters judgment for the defendant and ends the case.¹ A motion to arrest the judgment under Rule 34 is a separate vehicle, taken up later in this chapter.² A motion for a new trial under Rule 33 fills the remaining space. The defendant who files it does not seek an acquittal, only another opportunity to have the case decided, and a grant sends the case back for a second trial instead of closing it.

The governing text is Fed. R. Crim. P. 33, which has two parts: subsection (a) on the motion itself and subsection (b) on the time to file it.³ Subsection (a) provides that "[u]pon the defendant's motion, the court may vacate any judgment and grant a new trial if the interest of justice so requires."⁴ The rule lists no particular grounds, so the standard is a general one that the trial judge applies with considerable discretion.⁵ That breadth has a reason. A trial can be procedurally regular and still end in an unjust judgment, and no list of grounds could anticipate every way that happens, so the rule gives the trial judge a general power to correct the result. Against that power stands the presumption that a conviction is valid, which places the burden on the defendant to show that a new trial is warranted.⁶

Two questions therefore organize the material here, and they come in this order. The first is whether the court may grant a new trial and what standard governs that decision. The second is whether the motion was filed in time, which depends on the ground asserted, because subsection (b) gives a defendant who claims newly discovered evidence a longer period than one who relies on any other reason.⁷ Newly discovered evidence also carries its own multi-part showing, and both that showing and the deadlines receive their own treatment below. The first step is to ask who may bring a Rule 33 motion at all and how the trial court decides it, and the next section begins there.