5 Important Defenses in Criminal Cases

 


Whenever you come across a criminal defense lawyer and discuss the wide range of cases that he or she handles regularly, then you will realize that there could be a few common legal defenses available to criminal offenses. Remember that every defense will not apply to every crime. The five most important defenses in criminal cases are as follows-

 

1.    Coerced Confessions

 

The cops may not apply tyrannical measures to pressurize for an unintended confession. A few examples of unethical or unlawful interrogation strategies may comprise the following-

 

·         Prevent you from having water, food, or sleep,

·         Continuing interrogating you even after you seek a lawyer,

·         Making false promises of mercy in exchange for a confession.

·         Beating you, threatening harm or more severe punishment, etc.

 

These strategies can be so oppressive that, as studies have revealed, it’s not absurd for innocent people to agree and admit to criminal acts they never committed at all.

If it can be proved that the police pressurized you into a confession, then (1) the judge may debar your confession from evidence, or (2) the case should be entirely dropped, if at all you were coerced into confessing to a crime you never committed.

 

2.    Accidents

 

Let us accept the fact that accidents happen. No one can deny that. Fortunately, California law understands this and forgives professed criminal conduct that accidentally takes place. If you fortuitously commit an act that leads to a crime, then you do so without any criminal intent or negligence. Then you shouldn’t bear any criminal liability.

 

However, in certain instances of accidents, prosecutors may still file charges if it seems that you acted with ordinary or criminal negligence. In a nutshell, ordinary negligence occurs if you fail to act as a “reasonably prudent” person would have. California defines criminal negligence as an act with a reckless attitude. The best example would be a car accident that arises from a street race or drunk driving.

 

As long as you didn’t act with carelessness and weren’t stimulated by any other criminal intent, the legal defense of accident should discharge you of liability.

 

3.    Double Jeopardy

 

The “double jeopardy” clauses mentioned in the U.S. Constitution and the California Constitution safeguard you from (1) being accused of a second time for the same offense after an exoneration or a conviction, however, generally not a mistrial, and (2) facing several punishments for the same offense.

 

It may so happen that a jury discharges you of your California Vehicle Code 23152 DUI charges. Double jeopardy deters the prosecutor from claiming that he/she thereafter received extra evidence and would attempt to retry the case. Being placed “once in jeopardy” will be a permanent bar to a retrial for the same crime.

 

4.    Alibi

 

“Alibi” is a Latin word, meaning “in another place”. Whenever you are accused of a crime, however, you could not have committed the same because at the time it was committed you were somewhere else. It means that you have an alibi.

If one can verify your alibi with surveillance tapes, witnesses, credit card receipts, or other evidence, then this should go a long way towards refuting any allegations that you are the culprit.

 

The police may arrest you for an act of shoplifting that took place last Saturday in South Riverside. They arrest you as you match the description given by the retail store executive.

But you were attending a house party last Saturday in Rancho Cucamonga.  There are pictures of you at the event and you have a plane ticket to prove that you flew there Saturday morning.

 

5.    Entrapment

 

California’s entrapment defense is applicable for situations where you would not have committed a crime, but for the threats, harassment, or coercion of the police or their agents.  If you were entrapped, it implies that the cops, who were most possibly undercover, convinced you to commit a crime.

 

Quite frequently, entrapment is raised as a defense to California sex offenses and California drug crimes. It is probably mostly raised in connection with sting operations conducted by undercover decoy officers attempting to make busts for

  • ·         Penal Code 647(a), lewd acts in public,
  • ·         Penal Code 647(b), California’s prostitution law,
  • ·         Penal Code 311 child pornography, and
  • ·         Possessing and/or selling banned substances.

Entrapment is a legal defense that has to be established by a predominance of proof. It means that it is more likely than not that the sole reason you committed the alleged crime was due to the overreaching police conduct.

 

Inference

 

You need to get in touch with the best lawyers in California if you need someone to defend you in court.


Location: United States

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