Why is this going to take so long?

I'm going to post this in this category instead of Football because it's more of a general court question than a football question. Now as some of you may know, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers star cornerback Aqib Talib was arrested on charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, a charge that carries two to twenty years in federal prison if convicted. Some legal court stuff has been going on for a couple months now, and the actual trial date has been set for next March. My question is.. why? What is going to take so long? I'm pretty sure he'll be found innocent, but I don't want to go through a whole season wondering whether the best player on my favorite team's defense is going to be gone soon. So yeah, what's going to take so long... next March is like 8 months away! If it takes that long to get to trial, how long is the actual trial going to last?