As a general rule, prosecutors typically do not file criminal cases unless they feel confident about winning. They arraign people when law enforcement professionals have collected evidence beyond a reasonable doubt of their involvement in criminal activity.
Many people facing criminal charges assume they have no chance of fighting their charges near the strength of the state’s case. Even people who actively assert their innocence sometimes plead guilty to criminal charges because they believe they have no realistic means of defending against the allegations they face.
In reality, there are a host of different defense strategies that can work for those facing different types of criminal allegations. The right of discovery ensures that defendants and their lawyers can review evidence before going to trial. The three strategies below are among the most common solutions for negating or undermining the state’s evidence.
Bringing in expert witnesses
Professionals with a history in the tech sector, the medical industry or other intellectual niches can provide insight into the state’s evidence. Defense attorneys frequently hire expert witnesses to help make sense of the state’s evidence and provide an alternate explanation for that evidence. In many cases, expert witnesses can raise questions about someone’s connection to criminal activity or the true meaning of the evidence gathered by the state.
Showing issues with technical processes
Perhaps law enforcement professionals failed to secure a crime scene, leading to significant outside contamination. Perhaps the laboratory that processed evidence did not adhere to current best practices. Issues ranging from unprofessional evidence analysis to missing chain of custody records could raise questions about the credibility of state evidence. Defense teams do not need to completely counter the state’s case. They simply need to establish a reasonable doubt, which they may achieve by raising questions about the evidence.
Suppressing inappropriate evidence
There are certain circumstances in which police officers can violate the rights of an individual. Maybe they conduct an illegal search by patting someone down without their permission or a reasonable suspicion that the individual possesses the weapon. When a defense attorney can establish that police violated someone’s rights or broke the law while gathering evidence, they can ask the courts to exclude that evidence from a criminal trial. Doing so can weaken the state’s case and sometimes might lead to the dismissal of the pending charges.
Recognizing that there are many ways to fight pending criminal charges can give people the strength to assert themselves in criminal court. The right support when evaluating evidence can help those facing serious charges determine the best strategy given the charges and the evidence gathered by the state.