Top 5 Ways to Win a Criminal Case

Law professors can spend entire semesters teaching legal students the ins and outs of how to win criminal cases. Nonetheless, Reed, Antol & Hance, P.C.’s Ted Reed, a well-respected lawyer in Flagstaff, AZ, says that there are certain basic elements involved in building a successful criminal defense.

Here are Reed’s top five ways a lawyer in Flagstaff can help his client win a criminal case:

1) Get the judge to throw out the prosecutor’s evidence based on an illegal stop or an illegal seizure. One of the first areas that a criminal lawyer should look at is why his client was stopped by the police in the first place. Officers need to have a reasonable suspicion in order to make a traffic stop, and that suspicion has to become probable cause in order for the police to go forward and make an arrest. Lawyers will oftentimes argue the point of when exactly the traffic stop became an arrest, since that can be a sticky subject in some cases. During a criminal investigation, a lawyer will find out whether the original stop or arrest was properly justified. If not, then he may be able to challenge the arrest in court. Additionally, if there was any evidence that came from that illegal stop or arrest, then the lawyer should be able to get that evidence thrown out as well.

2) Get the judge to throw out the state’s evidence based on an illegal search. The same rules that govern a police officer’s right to stop and arrest someone apply to his right to search someone as well. If there is any evidence that derives from an illegal search, then that evidence needs to be thrown out of the court and not held against the defendant.

3) Prove that the interrogation was done illegally and in violation of the fourth amendment. If an attorney can prove that his client’s interrogators somehow violated the fourth amendment, then he should be able to get any evidence gathered during that interrogation thrown out. When lawyers start getting into the land of illegal interrogations, then the topics of the fifth and six amendments come into play as well. Obviously, if there is a confession or a statement that the defendant makes to incriminate himself during an illegal interrogation, then a lawyer should be able to get that tossed out on constitutional grounds.

4) Disqualify a witness’s identification. In some cases, there may be a bystander who witnessed a crime and therefore wants to be an important witness for the state’s case. However, there are constitutional issues that can get a witness’s identifications thrown out or challenged. Just because someone claims he saw a crime occur doesn’t necessarily mean that he is reliable as a witness. If the defense’s lawyer can challenge the accuracy of the witness’s statement, then there is a good chance that it will get thrown out.

5) Find witnesses who support the defense’s theory. The prosecution is going to have witnesses who support its version of events, so the defense is going to need to round up its own set of eyewitnesses. This is not so much a legal challenge as a factual challenge. If the case ends up going to trial, then those defense witnesses are going to need to testify in order to present an alternate version of events to the jury.

Although there are far more than just five ways to win a case, Reed says that the above examples are the most important and valuable things that any attorney can do to help out his criminal defense clients. Whether a Flagstaff lawyer is representing a client on DUI charges, theft charges, or almost anything else, Reed explains that the above tips are proven and effective ways to win all types of general criminal cases.

This article is for informational purposes only. You should not rely on this article as a legal opinion on any specific facts or circumstances, and you should not act upon this information without seeking professional counsel. Publication of this article and your receipt of this article does not create an attorney-client relationship.