Lawyers learn by-the-book criminal defenses during law school. These defenses include procedural issues, like search and seizure violations, and lack of evidence. Lawyers learn off-the-books criminal defenses, like the ones listed below, once they enter the real world.
So, a good Marietta criminal defense lawyer knows how the law works and knows how to make it work for people like you. The informal defenses discussed below are most effective during jury trials. They’re also effective during pretrial negotiations. Prosecutors are lawyers too. They understand how informal defenses affect jury trials, and they usually fear those effects.
Making it Work
A successful criminal defense starts with a formal one, not an informal one. Jurors could sympathize with a defendant like he was William Wallace in Braveheart. But without a formal defense, that sympathy is meaningless.
Formal defenses usually include the results of a pretrial suppression hearing. We mentioned search and seizure violations above.
Assume Officer Thomas pulls over Juanita. Officer Thomas asks for consent to search her car and Juanita refuses. When Officer Smith threatens to call ICE, she consents. During that search, Officer Thomas finds a baggie of cocaine.
A Marietta criminal defense lawyer could probably suppress the drugs because Juanita’s consent was involuntary. If a judge suppresses the drugs, the state’s case falls apart. Sometimes, prosecutors can put Humpty Dumpty back together again, but that’s usually impossible.
A Marietta criminal defense lawyer could also create a substantive defense during the trial itself. Let’s change the facts in this example.
Assume Juanita was in the rear passenger-side seat. Officer Thomas pulls over the driver, who had a pistol between his legs, and arrests everyone on the car for illegal weapons possession. More than likely, prosecutors would be unable to prove that Juanita exercised control over the gun, and control is a necessary element of a possession case.
Informal Defenses
Usually, people need hard skills and soft skills to be successful at work. Computer programmers must know how to program computers, but they must also be able to do things like play well with others. We touched on the hard skills needed to win a criminal case. Now, let’s examine the soft skills.
Desensitization
Some people may remember the first Rodney King trial in the 1990s. A curious onlooker videotaped several white officers hitting a black man with batons, while he laid on the ground and another white officer looked on seemingly dispassionately. The video horrified anyone with any semblance of a consciousness.
During the trial, defense lawyers played the video over and over and over. They also called expert witnesses to the stand who broke down the video frame by frame. By the end of the trial, the video didn’t seem so horrible.
The desensitization defense is often effective in violent crimes, mostly because many people are already desensitized. Half of Americans watch true crime shows. These shows usually feature grisly acts of violence. To further desensitize jurors, a Marietta criminal defense lawyer calls witnesses who dryly discuss entry/exit wounds, knife blade angles, the nature of the victim’s injuries, and other details.
Prosecutors often rely on the shocked-and-awe factor of a violent crime to sway jurors. The desensitization defense robs prosecutors of what may be their best weapon.
Nerd Defense
You wouldn’t hit a guy with glasses, would you? This defense didn’t work for a cornered Joker against a vengeful Batman, but it often works for criminal defendants in Georgia, once again especially in violent criminal cases.
Eyeglasses alter perception. Most people believe that people who wear glasses are less likely to commit violent crimes. People who wear glasses simply don’t look violent or menacing. Additionally, many people believe that a person who wears glasses is intelligent and makes good decisions. Lisa Wayne, a former president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, succinctly stated that “the bottom line is we know people judge a book by its cover.”
The opposite is true as well. In a jail case, it’s imperative that the jury not learn that the defendant is in custody. Most people assume that people in jail did something wrong. So, this revelation takes away a Marietta criminal defense lawyer’s best weapon, which is the presumption of innocence in criminal cases.
The best laid plans of mice and men sometimes go awry. A number of years ago, one of our colleagues carefully instructed his client to take notes, or at least appear to take notes, during opening statements. When the lawyer returned to the counsel table, he was horrified to see that his client was asleep.
Not My Fault
Much like desensitization, the groundwork for the “not my fault” defense is already in place. We routinely blame others for our own shortcomings (e.g. I’m a Sagittarius so it’s not my fault I have a bad temper and committed aggravated assault).
This defense is not a legal defense by any stretch of the imagination. But a blame-shifting defense, along with a legal defense, is usually enough to secure a favorable verdict, either a not-guilty verdict or a reduced sentence.
Vigilante
We mentioned the shock-and-awe factor above. A related factor is a sympathetic victim. Without a sympathetic victim, the prosecutor is vulnerable to the vigilante defense. If the alleged victim was a neighborhood drug dealer and the prosecutor’s evidence is shaky, very few jurors would vote to convict. If the prosecutor’s evidence is solid, the vigilante defense, when presented properly, could be a mitigating sentencing factor.
A complete defense ensures a successful outcome. For a free consultation with an experienced Marietta criminal defense lawyer, contact The Phillips Law Firm, LLC. The sooner you reach out to us, the sooner we start working for you.
