Criminal Defense Strategies
Criminal defense employs strategic arguments to challenge the authenticity of the prosecution’s evidence. Every year, there are hundreds of criminal cases filed in the US. In order to get rid of these charges and avoid punishments, the defendant needs to have a very good defense strategy which ensures him or her winning the case. The defense strategy focuses on ways and means to prevent a guilty verdict. But before employing these tactics, it is pertinent to know about those types and cases when they can be used effectively.
In order to win the criminal charges, following are the strategies a defendant must know to defend her or himself:
Self Defense:
Under criminal law cases, self-defense is a most common tactic used in the cases of assault or homicide. Assault and murder are the severe crimes that can lead the defendant charged with imprisonment and often death sentence if proven guilty. Self-defense is employed when the defendant states that he or she killed or attacked the victim because the victim attacked him in the first place and the act could cause the defendant’s death. So, the defendant killed the victim to avoid his or her own death.
The Defenseunder Exceptional Circumstances:
This strategy is also called defense of necessity. In this tactic, the defendant establishes that the crime occurred exceptional circumstances. But, in order to find not guilty, the defendant has to prove that there was no other option than to transcend the law. It is important to keep in mind that the court has specific criteria to decide whether such an act was necessary or justified or not.
Automatism:
This is a rare criminal defense strategy in which the mental condition of the defendant comes into question. In these cases, the defendant is not held responsible for the crime given lack of control over his or her actions under the conditions such as deluded, disabled, sleepwalking or provoked. In these cases, the criminal law distinguishes between the non-insane automatism and insane automatism.
The Duress:
Duress refers to the ‘crime under compulsion’. It is somewhat similar to the defense of necessity where the defendant has no other option than to commit a crime. In duress, the defendant commits a crime under compulsion where the victim threatens the defendant bodily harm or even death. However, the threat must be of greater degree than the offense committed.
Defense of Mistake:
If the defendant is not aware of the legality or results of his or her actions, under criminal law, the act will be considered as a mistake. One thing to keep in mind is that ignorance of fact is considered defense and not the ignorance of the law.
Defense of Infancy:
To be found guilty in criminal law, it is necessary for the defendant to have reached the age of criminal responsibility when the crime was committed. If the crime was committed at a younger age, the law does not hold the defendant guilty.
Restraint:
This criminal defense strategy employs that the defendant was highly restraint causing him or her to be unable to control the actions. For instance, somebody poured drugs in the defendant’s throat forcefully or extreme weather conditions resulted inthe driver losing control of the vehicle which caused the accident.
Entrapment:
Entrapment is the strategy employed in the criminal defense lawsuit when the defendant establishes that the crime was the result of deception by an official or an ordinary person under the guise of an official. In this case, the official might have deceived the defendant into believing that a certain act was not illegal or the act was necessary to carry out any legitimate purpose.
Although, it is not very difficult to understand these strategies however, the overall legal system is so complicated that it needs a skilled criminal defense lawyer to deal with your case and employ appropriate strategies where applicable.
