Once charged with criminal charges, the defendant has to appear in court to answer the complaints. More often than not, the defendant will seek legal services of a Las Vegas criminal defense attorney to negate the charges or to lighten up the possible sentence. Assuming that the case is already in order, the defendant, together with his/her attorney, has to concoct the best possible defense there is.
Though the aim of creating a viable argument in court is to set the defendant free from any charges, it doesn’t mean that both the defense attorney and the defendant can lie as they like; one of the many purposes of court is to observe the truth. Of course, the defendant has to expect that fully to his/her lawyer.
1.) Insanity Defense
Popularized by television shows and moving pictures, insanity defense, unknown to some, is the least used criminal defense among the four. Because this is a risky and failure-prone type of defense, the judge and jury can easily decide whether the defendant is really suffering from a mental disorder or just a charade of criminal conduct to justify the crime.
Insanity defense, if proven, can negate the case by invalidating the cause or intent of the defendant. The court will see fit that no court sentence will be applied to the defendant but rather a medical treatment to a local hospital with social confinement (asylum) from the public.
2.) Self-Defense
By using the self-defense strategy, the defendant is actually admitting that he/she was the perpetrator of the crime but was done solely out of necessity. Legally speaking, self-defense is a reasonable action to protect oneself if, and if only, danger presents itself and calling help is quite impossible at that moment. Defensive force that resulted casualties are not punishable by the law.
3.) Justification Defense
Of all the four most used criminal defense strategy, the justification defense is undeniably the most common. Since court battles are basically described as the battle of prosecution and defense, the opposing parties will try to contradict the other by exhibiting a series of supporting evidences.
This type of strategy will automatically come to play when the defendant claims that he/she was wrongly accused of the charges presented to him/her. When both parties present an alibi, the court will put its favor to the party with the most solid evidence. For example, the defendant can be removed from the crime scene by a receipt supported by the CCTV footages of the said shop.
4.) Innocence of the Law and Intoxication Defense
These two defense strategies are always linked together because of one common point: the absence of proper logical reasoning. In Las Vegas alone, there are thousands of tourists getting arrested every year for violating laws they didn’t know existed but in Las Vegas. Though a sad thought, as we all know, ignorance to the law excuses no one.
Intoxication defense, however, though cannot be used as a valid argument, there are some states in United States that can abate the charges, if not remove all the charges.
Resources:
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/Insanity+Defense
http://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/self+defense