Excuses, Explanations and Defenses. You Need to Understand the Difference.
Posted 9 months ago in Criminal Defense. Jurisdiction: New Jersey
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Many clients believe that their conduct is justified, and that if they just tell the judge, the prosecutor or the police what happened, then the charges are just going to go away. Unfortunately, this seldom happens and the client ends up admitting some of the elements of the crime.
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Everyone Else Thinks I was Right. The Guy Deserved It....Many clients want to tell their side of what occurred. It justifies their conduct. 'I was just doing the right thing..when I hit him. He had insulted the lady'. The problem is, no one appointed the client as the social arbiter. Certainly the conduct was not consented to by the victim. In essence, by trying to justify and explain their conduct, the client admits the very act they are charged with. Explanations and Excuses do not constitute a defense. Instead, what you need to do as a defendant, is explain why you did what you did to your lawyer. The lawyer can use the same facts to establish a Defense. Using this same example, the lawyer asserts the Defense of Others on your behalf. This may not be as satisfying to your ego, but it makes the same act seem like something out of the age of Chivalry. Getting a statement from the lady in the example, that she felt threatened, was scared by the victim, and was unable to fend off the victim, makes you look like a hero. 2
Defenses, Not Explanations or ExcusesA Legal Defense is a way for a lawyer to try to defend a client from the actions that the client took. Defenses do not spring up full-grown. You as the client need to talk to your lawyer about all of the facts that occurred. If a statement needs to be taken, it needs to be taken by an experienced criminal defense investigator, who knows the questions to ask, the questions NOT to ask, and how to evaluate the person giving the statement to assess how good they will be on the witness stand. If photographs need to be taken, they need to be taken by someone familiar with the process of land-marking the photographs, who can take the witness stand and explain why the photograph supports the defense view rather then the State's view. Other investigative actions support other types of defenses, and similarly require an assesment of need, and an experienced investigator to properly prepare a defense exhibit to be used in defending you. Defenses are not Explanations, nor are they an Excuse. |
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