4 Strategies A Criminal Defense Lawyer Can Use To Win Your Case
When you get charged with a crime, your first instinct should be to hire a competent criminal lawyer. The lawyer should help you argue your case and collect enough evidence.
Your defense attorney should also know different strategies they can use to support your case and encourage the court to dismiss your case or acquit you.
Here are some of the defense strategies your criminal defense attorney can use to win your case.
1. Self-Defense
If you used physical force on someone and caused bodily harm, your criminal defense attorney can argue that you acted in self-defense. The attorney can also use this argument if you used physical force to defend a third party in danger. For instance, if a parent hits and injures an aggressive stranger to protect a child, they'd be acting in self-defense.
Your lawyer must provide sufficient evidence to support the claim of self-defense. Your lawyer must also prove that you were not the initial aggressor in the incident.
2. Entrapment
Your lawyer can also argue that law enforcement officers persuaded you to commit an offense so they could have evidence to pin the crime on you.
Law enforcement officers can create a scenario for a suspected criminal to commit a crime. However, the officers cannot manufacture a crime and use it to charge an individual in court.
If your lawyer uses entrapment as a defense strategy, they must provide sufficient evidence to show that you'd not have engaged in the same crime if the officer didn't coerce you. Even in cases where the lawyer can prove inducement or persuasion, predisposition is the tiebreaker.
3. Police Misconduct, False Witnesses, and Inconsistent Statements
While the criminal justice system should protect everyone until proven guilty, some officers can take shortcuts to pin a case on individuals. In such a situation, your criminal defense lawyer can build a defense strategy around police misconduct.
Some of the scenarios that amount to police misconduct in a criminal case include:
- Filing false testimonies and reports as evidence
- Handling evidence incorrectly
- Coercing an innocent person to admit guilt
Your lawyer should see through such loopholes and create a solid case to win in court.
The criminal defense lawyer can also create a strong defense strategy if they prove that the prosecutors presented false witnesses for the case.
4. Reasonable Doubt
A jury can only pronounce a person guilty of the accused crime if the prosecution provides undisputable evidence that the person committed a crime. Your attorney can identify gaps in the prosecution's case and use them to challenge the concept of reasonable doubt.
For more info, contact a local criminal defense lawyer.
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