Call now & tell us about your case:
Fear of Duress is a common factor in criminal cases. There are many times when a suspect does not have to be coerced in any way, to be guilty of the crime. Fear of duress can be a fact of life for a good percentage of people. To understand what this means and why it happens, you have to look at the court system, and the way that it works.
The most common type of legal proceeding is known as a jury trial. A juror's job is to decide who the guilty parties are. This is not always easy, especially if you are dealing with a subject such as guilt. When they meet in a courtroom to discuss their verdict, some jurors can be hesitant or even intimidated by the case at hand. Some jurors actually cannot give an honest answer on the guilty or innocent question.
In these types of situations, the state has one tool to work with, and that is the fact that the defendant must meet a burden of proof. This is simply a technical term for an affirmative answer to a question. The person who is being questioned must be able to prove that he or she is guilty. To this end, the prosecutor will use the fact that the person knows the truth, or a statement that is untruthful to attempt to coerce a response that is not truthful.
The most common example of this is when someone commits a crime as a way to get something for themselves, whether it be money food, or other valuable things. They do this by lying about what happened and telling a story that is not true. This is a very tricky situation, because if the defendant is innocent, the police will know that a lie was told, and they can come in and interrogate the witness to try to gather information. If the defendant is guilty, the police will not necessarily know who to trust.
When you are dealing with a judge, a criminal defense lawyer will use his or her knowledge of the criminal system to gather all of the evidence that can be used to prove the defendant's innocence. This could mean getting a witness to tell a story that will back up the state. It could be a cop trying to take someone to jail for something that never happened. Whatever the case, the use of duress to obtain a confession is a tactic that almost every expert on the law uses when they are defending a client.
If you are in a court room and the judge is not being convinced by the evidence, then your criminal defense lawyer may be able to help. That is because the judge is not well informed on the current laws, and has not had the opportunity to be involved in previous cases where the use of duress was used. The judge relies heavily on testimony and circumstantial evidence. In a criminal trial, evidence and testimony are needed to support the theory of the defendant. While the jury has the responsibility of deciding who is guilty, the judge relies heavily on what the defendant says, and the answer that is given.
The jury will be confused by the words "I did not do it" and can lose all hope of finding the innocent party. If this happens, then the defendant will plead guilty and have a plea bargain. This is when the defendant gives up all of his or her rights to trial and agrees to a lesser sentence in exchange for pleading guilty. This type of plea is commonly known as a plea bargain.
When you are dealing with a judge or jury, or even a jury, a criminal defense lawyer will stand up for your rights and give you the chance to defend yourself. If you want to fight back, but you are not sure how to proceed, your lawyer can help you out. This is your right, and it is not one that should be taken lightly.
If you don’t call us to get an experienced criminal defense lawyer on your side to defend you against a rabid State prosecutor, the chances of your life being destroyed are extremely high.
Make sure the odds are in your favor by calling us right away to start working on your defense.
Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, Durham, Winston-Salem, Fayetteville, Cary, Wilmington, High Point, Concord, Greenville, Asheville, Gastonia, Jacksonville, Chapel Hill, Huntersville, Rocky Mount, Apex, Burlington, Kannapolis, Wilson, Wake Forest, Hickory, Indian Trail, Mooresville, Holly Springs, Monroe, Goldsboro, Salisbury, Matthews, Garner, New Bern, Sanford, Cornelius, Fuquay-Varina, Morrisville, Mint Hill, Statesville, Thomasville, Asheboro, Kernersville, Clayton, Leland, Carrboro, Lumberton, Clemmons, Havelock, Kinston, Shelby, Boone, Lexington, Lenoir, Elizabeth City, Knightdale