Types of defenses that criminal defense attorneys can use

This attorney defends his client in court who has been charged with criminal activity that can range from a misdemeanor to a felony. If convicted, your client could pay a fine, do community service, serve years in prison, or even receive the death penalty. The criminal defense attorney’s job is to acquit his client or get him the lightest sentence possible. To accomplish this, criminal defense attorneys can use various defenses.

Affirmative criminal defense

Some criminal defense attorneys will try to minimize the evidence of the accusation by showing that it is not true. In this defense, the lawyer, together with his client, provide evidence in support of the defense. For example, if the defendant is charged with first degree murder, which means that the client planned the murder before it happened, he may choose to provide an alibi as a witness. This is someone who testifies that the defendant could not have committed the crime and gives them an alibi for the time the murder was committed.

Defense against insanity

This defense made popular by movies and television shows. Unfortunately, it is a defense that is not used often or is often successful. When criminal defense attorneys use this defense, they state that their client committed the crime but did not know that what they did was wrong. To use this defense successfully, the client must have a serious defect or mental illness at the time the crime was committed. It can be risky to rely on this defense because the client is admitting to the crime, but if the jury does not believe the client is insane, they may find you guilty and give you a harsher sentence than you could have had if you had not. . used this defense.

Coercion and duress

This is an affirmative criminal defense used by attorneys that claims that their client was forced to commit the crime because he was threatened with illegal force. Force doesn’t really have to happen. The threat alone can be enough to satisfy this form of defense. This threat does not have to be against your client. It could be against another person, such as a family member. This defense cannot be invoked if your client’s reckless actions put you in the situation that caused the coercion.

General criminal defenses

• Self-defense: establishes that your client’s actions would be considered criminal if the act was not necessary to defend himself.

• Status of limitations – This is when criminal defense attorneys state that the amount of time the prosecution has to charge their client with the crime has elapsed, so the charges should be dropped.

• Consent: You acknowledge that you committed the crime but the victim consented to it.