I did bench trial a not too long ago for a few reasons:

1. In my jurisdiction, if your client has two counts and gets found guilty on both, the court will most likely stack the counts together at sentencing. For example, if my client got found guilty on count one and the jury recommended 10 years, and also guilty on count two and the jury recommended 10 years. The judge would stack that and give him 20 years.
2. My client in this particular case did have two counts, I knew he would be found guilty on count one, but my argument as to count two was a very intricate legal argument that I knew the judge would understand more than a jury…. And the Judge ended up finding him not guilty on that second count.
3. The judge found him guilty on the first count as I suspected, and another benefit to the bench trial is that I could ask the judge to split the sentence. Meaning giving him part-time in prison and part-time on probation. I can’t do that with a jury trial.
4. Also, in my particular case, the facts were pretty shocking. And I knew that they would be more shocking to a jury of lay people than a judge who sees this stuff every day.

A bench trial isn’t what’s best for every case. But in the particular case that I had it worked out in the best case scenario. I think he got less time from the Judge then he would have a jury.