An attorney represents their client in court who has been accused of a criminal felony that can vary from a misdemeanor to criminal activity. If convicted, the client would have to pay a fine, do community service, serve jail time, or even get a death penalty. It is the job of a criminal defense attorney to either get their client released of the charge or ensure they get the minimum possible sentence. To make this happen, criminal defense attorneys can use various defenses.
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Affirmative Criminal Defense
Some of the criminal defense attorneys attempt to minimize the prosecution’s evidence by making the court believe that it is not true. In this defense, the attorney, along with their clients produces accurate evidence which truly supports the defense. For instance, if an individual is being charged with first-degree murder, which means that the person has planned the murder before it happened, they are required to provide the court an alibi witness. An alibi witness is a person who testifies that the defendant may have not committed the crime and gives them an alibi for the time when the murder was committed.
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Insanity Defense
This type of defense is quite popular in TV shows and movies. Unfortunately, this type is not frequently used or usually not very successful. When a criminal defense attorney employs this technique it states that their client did not commit any crime but do not know what they did was wrong. To use this defense technique effectively, the client must have a serious mental illness or defect at the time when the crime was committed. It can be quite risky to rely on this form of defense as the client actually is admitting to committing a crime but if the court does not believe they can find the person guilty and hands-down a harder sentence than they may have if they had not used this approach. Learn more at lindyursolaw.com
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Coercion and Duress
This is an affirmative criminal defense attorney used that shows that their client was compelled to commit the crime due to being threatened with illegal force. The force does not really have to happen – it is just a threat that can prove to be quite effective to satisfy this form of defense. The threat does not really have to be against the client. It could be against anyone even a family member. This type of defense cannot be summoned if their client’s irresponsible behavior put them in a scenario that led to duress.