Criminal defense attorneys have very challenging jobs. They need to understand the law and track judicial precedent as judges in various courts rule on key legal matters. They also need to understand how to evaluate and reinterpret evidence.
Criminal defendants and the attorneys representing them have a right of discovery. The state should provide them with all of the evidence related to the case, including potentially exculpatory evidence. Access to information about evidence can have a profound influence on the criminal defense strategy that the lawyer develops for their client.
What are some of the tactics that legal teams use to undermine the state’s case?
Excluding ill-gotten evidence
The Fourth Amendment protects people from unreasonable searches and seizures. If police officers conducted an illegal traffic stop or an inappropriate search, a lawyer can ask the court to set aside the evidence that they obtained by violating the defendant’s rights. The same is true in scenarios where a Miranda rights violation occurred while an individual was in state custody. The courts may have to set aside a confession and any other statements made to a police officer if the Miranda warning was not provided to the defendant prior to their questioning.
Challenging the state’s practices
Maybe police officers made mistakes when cataloging evidence. Maybe a forensic specialist didn’t keep appropriate chain of custody records. There could be issues with how the laboratory handled or tested samples. The state might even try building a case on science that has been debunked, such as 911-call analysis. Lawyers often bring in expert witnesses to help show that the state did something inappropriate or unscientific while gathering, storing or analyzing evidence.
Developing an alternate explanation
In some cases, the evidence that the state gathers does not conclusively point to one person. Instead, it might be possible for the defense team to reinterpret the evidence and provide an alternate timeline of events. Particularly when there is reason to suspect a specific other party based on the evidence or when the evidence raises questions about whether the defendant could have played a role at all, reanalyzing the evidence and changing the narrative attached to it could be a viable criminal defense strategy.
Those hoping to fight pending criminal charges often need help planning the best defense strategy. Reviewing the state’s evidence with a skilled legal is often key to the development of a workable criminal defense strategy.