Just because there is clear and irrefutable evidence of you committing a crime, such as video surveillance that shows your face, doesn't mean you have to immediately switch to a guilty plea. Even when there is proof available that you committed a crime, there are four distinct criminal defense techniques your lawyer can use if they apply to your situation. Learn about these four defense techniques to determine if any them could help in your case.
Law Enforcement Interference
If a law enforcement officer or agency acts in a way that tricks or forces you into committing a crime, you can claim entrapment and use it as your defense. However, it's not easy to simply claim you were tricked into the crime because each state has plenty of provisions to allow police officers and other professionals to deceive you in order to complete their investigation. For example, many people wrongfully believe that asking a person if they're a police officer protects them from charges later thanks to entrapment. You'll need to prove the law enforcement officer used coercion or force beyond what your state allows, on top of proving you had no other motivation to commit the crime, in order to use this defense successfully.
Various Forms of Defense
If the crime involved the defense of yourself or another person, you can use that as your defense in most cases. Pleading self-defense is not an automatic way to get out of an assault or battery charge. Since in most states self-defense is a defense in which the burden of proof is on the defendant, you'll need plenty of evidence to show you were being attacked or had reasonable fear of an imminent physical danger. The way you defended yourself, including the amount of force used, greatly affects the validity of this claim based on your state's regulations regarding self-defense. Many states only allow victims to use the same force to retaliate, so shooting someone who was attacking you with a knife could invalidate your self-defense claim.
Beyond self-defense, you may be able to demonstrate you were protecting someone else and have the charges reduced or dropped. Of course, a defense of others claim is still limited by the same kinds of questions regarding force and threat as self-defense. It is also trickier to use this defense when the person you were defending was a friend, family member, or loved one since they are considered likely to back up your claims regardless of the truth.
Insanity or Temporary Insanity
It's common for people to assume they can just claim temporary insanity and go free because of the way movies and TV shows have portrayed this defense. In truth, it's one of the most difficult criminal defenses to use. Multiple medical professionals must agree that you were unable to understand your actions and their consequences. It's not enough to be so enraged you can't think straight or have a momentary lapse in judgement. Even if you do use this defense successfully, you'll still need to go through a long and complex rehabilitation period and may end up hospitalized for most or all of the rest of your life.
Intoxication and Medical Complication
Finally, you may also be able to use a claim of incapacity to reduce the severity of the charges or achieve an acquittal for your case. Most states hold intoxicated people fully responsible for their actions, even when they claimed to not remember a thing, but proving intoxication reduces the severity of charges because it eliminates some or all of the intent to commit the crime. If you were unconscious during the crime due to intoxication or a medical condition and you can prove it, it's not an automatic defense. You may still be charged with the crime if you knew your loss of consciousness was possible and you drove a vehicle or took similar action regardless of the risk.
Talk to a criminal law attorney at a law firm like Mesenbourg & Sarratori Law Offices for more advice.
