Common Criminal Law Myths
CRIMINAL LAW MYTH # 1: "They didn't read me my rights, so they have to drop the charges."
When you're questioned in custody, the police are required to read you your rights and offer you the opportunity to have an attorney present. However, the idea that charges must be dismissed if the police failed to read your rights is overly optimistic, and can lead to a dangerous false sense of security.
Law enforcement officers are not always required to read your rights before questioning. That only comes into play during "custodial interrogation". Even if the police were required to read you your rights and failed to do so, the charges won't necessarily be dismissed. In most circumstances, if the police were required to read your rights and failed to do so, then whatever information they gathered during that questioning cannot be used against you. This is the "fruit of a poisonous tree" analogy.
If Miranda rights are violated, sometimes that leaves the prosecution without sufficient evidence to go ahead with the case against you, but in some cases it only means that your statement is excluded and the case moves forward without it. If other evidence exists, such as physical evidence, witnesses, or a police report, it may still be used in your case.
CRIMINAL LAW MYTH # 2: Innocent people are always acquitted and only guilty people are convicted.
Unfortunately this is not the case. In our criminal law system courts across America are far too inundated with cases to separate the guilty from those who are innocent or who cannot be proven guilty. The system only separates those who have very good criminal defense lawyers from those who do not. Many people think it is the court's function to see to it that a defendant gets a fair trial. The judges certainly would like to see defendants get a fair trial, but that should not be confused that with believing that the court is going to help teh accused.
The court's job is to see to it that a criminal defense attorney is given a fair opportunity to cross examine the government's witnesses and to present your defense to attempt to convince a jury that the government has not proven the defendant guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The rest is up to the criminal defense attorney. If the criminal defense attorney has not properly investigated, researched or filed the necessary motions in the case, a trial probably is not going to go well unless the prosecutor, their assistants or government agencies have not done their job. However, in a large number of criminal law cases, most of their job was done before the defendant even knows they were investigating the the defendant.
CRIMINAL LAW MYTH # 3: "That's entrapment!"
Entrapment has a very specific meaning in the criminal justice system, and it doesn't mean most of the things that the average person believes that it means. In simple terms, entrapment means that law enforcement officers led you to do something that you wouldn't have done unless they'd encouraged you to do it.
The fact that the government provided the opportunity to commit the crime is generally not sufficient to establish entrapment if you were ready and willing to commit the crime. This includes trying to buy illegal drugs or solicit prostitution from an undercover police officer.
CRIMINAL LAW MYTH # 4: All criminal defense lawyers are basically equal.
Some people believe that criminal defense lawyers with some years of criminal law experience are probably about equal and that the lowest cost should be the main concern. Regardless of the number of years of experience, it is more the type of experience that your criminal defense lawyer has. Be sure that your attorney is an experienced criminal defense lawyer in your court. Some judges and courts have specific "local" rules and procedures and criminal defense lawyers must be familiary with what each judge expects.
To a large extent, some criminal law cases are won or lost prior to the beginning of the trial by way of proper investigation and the bringing of necessary pretrial motions. Many criminal law cases are dismissed on a pretrial motion for dismissal when a judge believes that the case should not take up his court's time because there is some fatal defect with the indictment, he or she feels your rights have been infringed, or there is not sufficient evidence to proceed.
CRIMINAL LAW MYTH # 5: High fees equal good results.
Another common myth is that when your criminal defense lawyer has charged a large sum of money to defend you, you're in good hands. That may be true and may not be true. Never confuse the payment of a large fee with a guarantee of a quality criminal defense. Be leery of paying too large a fee for a criminal defense attorney because of the size of his web site; look more to the number of years of experience he has in practicing criminal defense law, and never hire a criminal defense attorney until you have spoken with him in detail about your case and you feel comfortable with his representation.
