What does a Phoenix criminal defense attorney do when they take over your case? You can count on an attorney to manage your communications with a liable party, police officers, and legal representatives. You can also expect your attorney to defend your best interests in court.
That defense includes challenging the evidence the prosecution attempts to use to charge you with a crime. The team with Suzuki Law Offices has several strategies that we can use to challenge the validity of the prosecution’s evidence. In challenging the prosecution’s perspective on your case, we can more effectively defend your freedom.
Criminal Defense Attorneys in Phoenix Go to Work for You
The Phoenix criminal defense attorney that you choose to work with has an obligation to represent your best interests throughout a criminal trial. This means that you can expect an attorney to exercise the resources reasonably available to them to challenge the evidence that the prosecution brings against you.
Our team uses several strategies to question the validity of this evidence, including the following:
Challenging Chain of Custody
The evidence that the prosecution builds its case on passes through a lot of different hands-on its way to the courtroom. Our team recognizes that evidence may become contaminated or even lost throughout this process. If the evidence presented to a court appears muddled or tampered with, we can challenge the chain of custody that brought said evidence to court.
Likewise, we can examine the paperwork following the evidence’s transition from person to person. If it appears that evidence became misplaced, or if there are inconsistencies in the available paperwork, we can encourage a jury to question the validity of the data in question.
Demanding Authentication of Evidence
The prosecution has a responsibility to safely deliver evidence to Phoenix’s criminal courts. What’s more, the prosecution must have any evidence submitted for the jury’s consideration authenticated by an expert.
Here’s where authentication can benefit the defense. In some cases, we may have the right to challenge the expertise of the party that the prosecution had authenticated their evidence. We may also highlight evidence that the prosecution failed to have authenticated in an effort to dismiss that evidence from the court’s roster.
It can prove particularly challenging for the prosecution to authenticate evidence, including the following:
- Emails
- Text messages
- Social media posts
- Chat room exchanges
- Digital surveillance footage
Your criminal defense attorney may even have the right to file a motion to suppress certain kinds of evidence if the prosecution repeatedly fails to appropriately authenticate their data. If these motions succeed, a criminal judge can request that a jury dismiss any of the unauthenticated evidence from their consideration of the case.
Objecting to Relevance and Hearsay
The prosecution is obligated to prove that the evidence they’ve brought forward to back their claims bears relevance to your case. If we believe that the evidence the prosecution brings forward primarily exists to throw your character into doubt or otherwise veers away from the accusations in question, we can have it dismissed for lack of relevance.
Similarly, the prosecution must undergo a specific process to take witness statements to prove their claims. The court cannot accept statements taken out-of-court speculating on the nature of your accusations. These statements constitute hearsay evidence and open the prosecution up to a challenge from our team.
Amendment Challenges
Even in the face of an arrest, you retain certain rights. The Fourth Amendment protects you from unreasonable search and seizure, whereas the Fifth Amendment protects you from self-incrimination. If we believe that the prosecution violated either of these rights, we can bring our concerns forward in criminal court.
Violations of the Fourth Amendment may render certain forms of evidence involved in your case unusable. Violations of the Fifth Amendment, including the submission of statements made under duress, can see a criminal judge throw out your case entirely.
You Can Discuss Your Criminal Defense Ahead of Time
You can meet with your defense attorney long before you go before a judge to discuss what strategies you might use to protect your right to freedom. Moreover, you can ask your attorney about what evidence they’ve brought forward in an effort to prove your innocence. This evidence, called exculpatory evidence, can include the following:
- Alibis provided by expert witnesses
- Character witnesses
- Surveillance footage
- Witness statements challenging the prosecution’s stance
If your criminal defense attorney does not bring forward exculpatory evidence, a criminal judge may accuse that attorney of a miscarriage of justice and request that you seek out alternative representation. As such, we take our responsibility to bring exculpatory evidence into your case seriously.
We also take the time to carefully prepare you for examination and cross-examination should the prosecution express interest in putting you on the stand. You can work with our team to go over anticipated questions and outline your answers. We, in turn, can prepare questions of our own that throw the prosecution’s interrogation into question.
Book a Case Evaluation With Phoenix’s Criminal Defense Attorneys Today
If you find yourself concerned about the evidence the prosecution intends to submit ahead of your criminal trial, let an experienced criminal defense attorney in Phoenix know. Our team can formulate several different defenses designed to protect your freedom while addressing the prosecution’s evidence.
You can count on Suzuki Law Offices to keep you up-to-date as we evolve the strategies we put to use in your case. Book your criminal defense case evaluation today for more information about the tools and techniques we put to use in Phoenix’s criminal courtrooms.
Call or text (602) 682-5270 or complete a Free Case Evaluation form