I have represented clients througout the state of Caifornia. There are certain defenses which are common between across the counties including Madera County, Fresno County, and Tulare County, and Monterey County.
Below is a description of the common legal defenses in the state of Calfornia.
1) Accidents
2) Allibi
3) Coerced Confessions
4) Double Jeopardy
5) Duress
6) Entrapment
7) False Accusation / Wrongful Arrest
8) Insanity
9) Lack of probable.
10) Mistaken Identity
11) Misatake of Fact
12) Necessity
13) Parents right to discipline childrene
14) Police Misconduct
15) Self Defense/Defense of Others
16) Unconsciousness
17) Vonuntary/Involuntary Intoxication
1) Accidents
If you accidentally commit a crime without ciminal intent then the law does not hold you criminally liabe. If however, you act in a reckless I don't care attitude the law does not protect you.
2) Alibi
In its most basic form this defense means you could not have committed the crime because you were somewhere else at the time the crime was committed. We were able to prove this once in a defense which saved our client a term of life in prison.
3) Coerced confession
If the police overcame your free will in an attempt to get a confession. Then the confession is thrown out as evidence.
example continued questioning after you ask for a lawyer
food water or sleep deprivation
beating you
4) Double Jeopardy
This defense means that under the constitution you cannot be prosecuted a second time for the same offense.
5) Duress
This defense applies if you only committed a crime because of anothers persons threats toward you
6) Entarpment
You would not have committed the offense excpet due to the harrassment or the coercion of the police
7) False accusation/ wrongful arrest
people often accuse people of crimes they did not commit due to revenge jelousy or attempts to cover up ones own criminal conduct.
8) Insanity
If you could not understand the nature of your act or
could not distinguish rigth from wrong.
9) Lack or Probable Cause
The law requires police to have probable cause before they can detain or arrest you. proabable cause essentially means that a reasonable and cautious officer would believe that criminal activity is occuring.
10) Mistaken Identity
This is the leading cause of wrongful conviction. IE the real perpetrator of the offense and you get blamed.
11) Mistake of Fact
If you act under a reasonable mistake of fact you are not guilty of a crime.
This does not mean that just simply stating that you did not know something was a against the law is not a defense. rather
if you are accused of stealing a power drill from your neighbor but you reasonably belived that it was your power tool that could be a mistake.
12) Necessity
An example of this defense is that you are being chased by someone and you break into someone elses house when you reasonably believe you must do that to escape the person that is considered necessity.
13) Parents right to discipline a child
Parents have the right to discipline there children, as long as it is done in a reasonable manner.
14) Police Misconduct
Its not at all uncommon to see acts of misconduct, abuse, and excessive force by police this could be
planting evidence
lying or embellishing police reports
15) Self Defense/ Defense of Others
if you injure or kill someoen in the reasonable belief that you must use force your conduct could be excused.
16) Unconsciousness
If you are while you commit a crime California law excuses your actions
this includes acts while
asleep
delirious
epileptic seizure
involuntarily intoxicated
17) Voluntary or Involuntary Intoxication
Typically voluntary intoxication does not act as a defense to a crime.
However voluntary intoxication could serve as a defense that you could not have formed the specific intent to commit a crime.
involuntary intoxation occurs when someone else gave you the agent that makes you act.
