Why do felons have 10x more time to prepare for trial than petty criminals?

it's the lawyers... lawyers that deal with small charges don't postpone trials for months at a time and in some cases lawyers aren't even utilized so the citizen would be responsible for requesting a later trial date. lawyers that handle felony cases know that as time pes they're chance of winning a trial increase due to many different factors. keep in mind that if you are accused of a crime that you didn't commit and are facing life in prison, you would want as much time as possible to ensure that you don't get wrongly convicted.