Looking for the best criminal defense lawyers in Texas? Before you settle on one, you should look into some of the strategies they use in their defense, as well as, their track record of wins. The latter is strongly dependent on the former.
This article explores some of the best strategies criminal defense lawyers use to fight criminal charges and secure your freedom. Read on.
Factors That Could Affect a Lawyer’s Choice of Defense Strategy
When working with a criminal lawyer in Houston, Texas, their analysis of the facts in your case will determine the legal strategy they’ll use to defend you. Some of the factors that drive this decision include:
- Your explanation of what happened. Any criminal defense lawyer, Texas, will expect full disclosure from you so that they aren’t blindsided by the prosecution
- Good criminal lawyers in Dallas, Texas, will also need to take into account witness accounts of what happened at the crime scene. They only choose the credible ones to take the stand if they know it will help your case
- They analyze all physical evidence and provable facts related to the case and try to poke holes in the prosecution’s case
- They look at the police reports and try to review their credibility
- They bring in expert witnesses to provide independent third-party reports and give testimony
- They analyze the criminal prosecutor’s history and strategy
- They factor in the existing judicial precedent on cases like yours and look into the presiding judge’s history of judgments in similar cases
Criminal lawyers in Midland – Texas, Houston, and Dallas, will then choose a strategy that will give you the best possible outcome in your case. Perhaps, even avoid jail time altogether. Regardless of how damning the evidence against you is, they will weigh all factors presented, to craft a theory that is most likely to succeed.
Get the Best Lawyers to Give You the Best Defense
If the charges you’re facing have harsh penalties attached to them, you can’t afford to take any chances. You need to get the best defense on your team to avoid spending a significant portion of your life behind bars.
If you’re worried about how much the lawyer retainer will set you back, the reality is you can’t put a price on your freedom. Get a lawyer who can accord your case the full attention it deserves, but at a cost that won’t break the bank.
The Best Defense Strategies to Fight Criminal Charges
It’s important to mention here that success in a criminal case is relative. It doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll walk out of jail a free citizen (although you could). If the charges leveled against you are dire, success could mean getting your charges reduced, or even getting a lenient sentence.
It all depends on how good your lawyer is in fighting those criminal charges. With that said, here are some of the top defense strategies your lawyer might use to prove your innocence.
1. A Case of Mistaken Identity
One of the most common sources of false accusations is erroneous witness identification. If your physical traits just so happened to be similar to those of the perpetrator, it is not uncommon for witnesses to get their facts mixed up. This can be a great strategy to help you avoid prison time.
However, if that is indeed what happened to you and you ended up serving time in prison, getting an expungement lawyer to get your records sealed will give you the best shot at living a normal life.
2. Compelled Confessions
Police have been known to use underhanded tactics to coerce false confessions from suspects. This is especially common in juvenile cases.
They use physical threats of violence, sleep deprivation, starvation, and mental manipulation to get a confession out of suspects. Your lawyer will look for evidence that law enforcement officers used coercion to get you to admit to the crime.
3. Probable Cause
Your lawyer can file a motion to exclude any evidence that was obtained without following due process. For instance, it is illegal for an officer to stop, search, and arrest you without any probable cause.
Any evidence they may have obtained this way would have to be suppressed in a trial. If that was the only evidence they had against you, you might just walk.
4. You Have an Alibi
If your lawyer can prove that you were elsewhere at the time a crime was committed, you cannot be guilty of any crime that occurred during the same period. You would need to get a solid alibi to prove your case.
5. Entrapment
This happens when a law-abiding citizen who doesn’t have any prior run-ins with the law commits a crime after they were coerced or intimidated into doing so. This is common with undercover police operations where law enforcement officers persuade the informant to break the law.
Drug-related crimes, child pornography, and prostitution cases are the most common cases where a drug crime or sex crime lawyer uses entrapment as a defense strategy.
6. Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
You’ll hardly find a DUI lawyer or traffic ticket lawyer using this line of defense. This is because DUI and traffic-related offenses aren’t categorized as serious offenses.
When establishing guilt in both adult and juvenile cases, the threshold for convictions must be high since the consequences involve the potential loss of liberty. So, a lawyer might use this defense to cast doubt on whether you are guilty of the alleged crime.
7. Duress
If a crime was committed by someone who believed that they were facing an impending risk of harm at the time, then according to the law, their actions were made under duress. If the circumstances around the crime prove that you acted under duress, that line of defense might exonerate you.
Get the Best Criminal Defense Lawyer to Secure Your Freedom
Before applying any of the strategies outlined above, good criminal defense lawyers will first try to get your case dismissed before going to trial. This can be done by the courts or the district attorney if you can get a prosecutor to drop the charges.
If you have more legal questions, you can also chat online with a Laws101.com attorney where you’ll be instantly connected to a lawyer who can give you legal guidance on your specific case or question.