im 17 and im being accused of shoplifting.

Are you charged criminally or civilly? If you are charged criminally, are you really going to risk jail time without an attorney defending you? What is your freedom worth to you? If you are charged civilly, a shoplifting conviction may still greatly affect your life. For example, you may need to disclose the conviction on future employment applications.

Whether this is a criminal case or civil case determines the burden of proof for the prosecution. If it is criminal, then the burden of proof is 100%, beyond a reasonable doubt; and one witness may not be enough, depending on the facts of your case. If this is a civil case with a lower burden of proof, such as clear and convincing evidence (less than 100%), one witness is almost certainly enough.

If you are charged criminally and you cannot afford an attorney, you may qualify for public defender assistance. If you do, take advantage of it! If you do not qualfiy for public defender assistance, then consider the following. What you are asking for, a strategy for handling your case, requires us to have ALL the details of your case. We cannot help you based on the very limited information in your post. And we cannot help you unless we are retained to do so.

Respectfully, this is the equivalent of you emailing your symptoms to a doctor and asking the doctor to diagnose you. The doctor would require you to come to his office and pay his fees. An attorney will do the same.

On the up-side, most initial consults with private attorneys are free. You may be able to get some limited direction by consulting with an attorney in your area.

Please, please, please do not handle this on your own!

Good luck!