What are the consequences if a defendant waives his right to stand trial by jury?

Those consequences depend in part on a given jurisdiction's law. The majority's approach, for example, seems to track Ohio's death penalty scheme, which provides for an all-or-none waiver of what the statute treats as a unitary jury trial right: The sentencer will be "the trial jury and the trial judge, if the offender was tried by jury," but otherwise must be "the panel of three judges that tried the offender upon the offender's waiver of the right to trial by jury." (Ohio Rev. Code Ann. 2929.03(C)(2)(b).) Thus, under Ohio law, the "[t]he waiver of the right to trial by jury in a capital case applies to both the guilt phase and the penalty phase of the trial." (State v. Foust (2004) 105 Ohio St.3d 137, 823 N.E.2d 836, 852.)

But Ohio law is materially different from California's, which maintains a jury trial as the default even if the defendant has waived jury at a previous phase of the trial. (See People v. Hovarter (2008) 44 Cal.4th 983, 1027, 81 Cal.Rptr.3d 299, 189 P.3d 300.)

[3 Cal.5th 221]