If you’ve been charged with a crime, the first thing you do to defend yourself should be to contact a criminal defense lawyer in Oklahoma City. An experienced lawyer is always your best bet at getting a good outcome for your case, and your lawyer will know all the legal defenses that are open to you.
From a Criminal Defense Lawyer in Oklahoma City: Common Legal Defenses in Criminal Cases
1. Not Culpable
The idea here is that you did not know what you were doing for whatever reason. The most well known of these defenses is the insanity defense, where a person’s mental state is so poor that they did not know what they were doing. In some cases, being intoxicated or under the influence of drugs could be helpful here, as well, but at other times it could make things worse. The circumstances will matter a good deal.
Another type of defense in this vein is a mistake of fact. A mistake of fact simply means that you did not know what you were doing was not legal. Ignorance of the law is not a complete defense, but it can mitigate some of the worst consequences. Visit this page to talk with an experienced lawyer who can help you discover if this defense could apply to you.
2. Justified
You can also defend yourself by showing that what you did was necessary to defend yourself or others. In other words, your actions were justified under the circumstances, and a reasonable person would have done the same thing in your shoes.
The most common type of defense of this type is a self-defense claim, where you show that you had to act to stop someone from harming you or another. However, occasionally, you can also bring a defense arguing that it was necessary to do a small harm in order to prevent a much greater harm from happening.
3. No Crime
Another type of defense is showing that no crime actually occurred. For example, say you badly injured someone: if you are able to show that the two of you were engaging in an activity of your own free will that both of you had agreed to do, and the accident was just that – an accident – you may be able to show that there was no crime.
4. Proof It Was Not You
In many criminal defense cases, the best defense is not to try to prove that you did not do something (it’s hard to prove a negative), but rather to simply cast out on the prosecution’s case.
The prosecution must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you were guilty, and that is a very high bar to reach. However, in some cases there may be irrefutable evidence that shows that you did not do whatever crime you’re being accused of. The most common of these, of course, is the alibi.
If you’ve been accused of a crime, your best defense is always to get legal help as quickly as possible.
