The arraignment hearing serves two important purposes in Utah criminal cases. The first is to give formal notice of the charges filed by the prosecutor. Second, the arraignment gives the accused an opportunity to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty.

At the arraignment hearing, the judge is required to give formal notice of the charges that have been filed against the accused. In modern courts, most defendants will already be generally aware of the nature of the charges based on what they were cited for or what they were booked in jail for. But the specific charges filed by the prosecution often do not exactly match the charges originally indicated by the arresting or investigating police officers.

Under our Constitution, a person is presumed innocent until proven guilty. This presumption of innocence means that the prosecution bears the burden of presenting evidence sufficient to convince a jury, unanimously and beyond a reasonable doubt, that the crimes charged were in fact committed by the person who is charged. A plea of “not guilty” does not always represent an affirmative statement of actual innocence. Instead, by entering a plea of not guilty the defendant is putting the government on formal notice that the prosecutor will be required to meet the burden of proof placed on the government by the constitutions of both Utah and the United States.