Given the high conviction rate that prosecutors in the Boston area achieve, you might think you’re behind the eight-ball when criminal charges are levied against you. The evidence might seem stacked against you, leaving you feeling like there’s no way to convince a judge and jury of your innocence, even though you’ve been falsely accused of a crime. But remember, you’re innocent until proven guilty. So, you need to find aggressive ways to assert your criminal defense, challenge the prosecution’s evidence, and fight to ensure the truth comes out in court.
What can you do if you’ve been wrongly accused of criminal wrongdoing?
After being accused of a criminal offense, you might have an urge to go to the police and sit down with prosecutors to tell your side of the story. But talking to the state can be a big mistake in your case since the police might twist your words out of context and use them against you. Instead, you should think about implementing the following strategies:
- Recounting your interactions with the accused: You’re going to know your accuser when you’re charged with a crime. Once you learn their identity, think back to all your interactions with them. Be detailed in recalling your memories so that you can correct the record in court when false allegations are levied against you.
- Talking to witnesses: You shouldn’t listen to everything the prosecution says. The witnesses that they intend to present against you might be unreliable and untrustworthy. If you can find inconsistencies in their statements or motivations for why they intend to testify against you, then you can use those facts to attack the reliability of their testimony at trial. By thoroughly assessing the witnesses in your case you might also discover that some of them contradict the prosecution’s story and can support your criminal defense arguments.
- Using experts: The prosecution is going to claim that the facts are as they present them. But that isn’t always the case. Forensic evidence can be misconstrued, and the mental recollection of victims and witnesses can be faulty. Fortunately, you can hire your own expert witnesses to analyze the evidence in question to see if there are ways for you to poke holes in the prosecution’s assertions or maybe even completely derail their claims.
- Conducting your own investigation: If your criminal charges were brought about by shoddy police work, then merely challenging the reliability of witnesses may not be enough to protect yourself. Instead, you may need to conduct your own investigation so that you can present the jury with an alternative theory of the case, one that brings forth the truth.
- Consider a private polygraph test: Although many polygraph tests present evidentiary issues, if you pass a private one, you might be able to use it as leverage to show the prosecution that their case is weak. Even if you fail the polygraph test, you might be able to keep it private from the prosecution, which puts you at minimal to no risk when taking of these private polygraph tests.
Do everything you can to avoid a wrongful conviction
One of the tragic realities of the criminal justice system is that innocent people are convicted all the time. And when they’re sent away, their lives are oftentimes irreparably ruined. Don’t let that happen to you. Aggressively work to build the criminal defense strategy necessary to protect your freedom and your future at all costs.