Order of trial. The jury having been impaneled and sworn, the trial shall proceed in the following order:
1. If the indictment or information be for a felony, the clerk must read it and state the plea of the defendant to the jury. In all other cases this formality may be dispensed with.
2. The district attorney, or other counsel for the State, must open the cause. The defendant or his counsel may then either make his opening statement or reserve it to be made immediately prior to the presentation of evidence in his behalf.
3. The State must then offer its evidence in support of the charge, and the defendant may then offer evidence in his defense.
4. The parties may then respectively offer rebutting testimony only, unless the court, for good reasons, in furtherance of justice, permit them to offer evidence upon their original cause.
5. When the evidence is concluded, unless the case is submitted to the jury on either side, or on both sides, without argument, the district attorney, or other counsel for the State, must open and must conclude the argument.
Last modified: February 25, 2006