Legal Question [View all]

[Meiko]

Any lawyers out there? I read last week where the Federal Government was considering a hate crime charge against Zimmerman for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin. My question is since the trial hasn't officially started yet when do the Fed's have to file the charges? They can't wait until after the trial has started, right? If they file charges now does everyone have to go back for new hearings to set bail and so on?

I was just curious, I am not sure of the rules governing this sort of thing. If charges can be filed anytime it would make things hard on the defense and confuse the process. If the charges must be filed prior to the start of the trial the Fed's had better hurry.