If you already confessed to committing a crime, you will need the assistance of a criminal defense lawyer immediately. An experienced attorney will try to get the confession thrown out of court. There are many reasons why someone confesses to a crime and some may be reason enough for the confession to be thrown out. A common defense strategy is to try and prove the suspect was unfairly coerced into a confession. Police are not required to tell the truth when they are questioning a suspect. They can intimidate suspects, trick them, and exhaust them. (There are limits to what the police can do, for instance they cannot physically coerce a confession). These are some of the reasons you should not answer questions without your attorney present.
All citizens now have constitutional rights in this country. Of course this has not always been the case – when the early settlers were accused of a crime, they did not have the right to remain silent or the right to an attorney to be present during questioning. They were intimidated and threatened by their interrogators. They also didn’t have the right to keep soldiers out of their homes or to prevent an illegal search and seizure by the police. When the Founding Fathers formed our government, one of the things they knew had to be put into law was the Bill of Rights to prevent government from misusing its power.
You now have the right to a fair and speedy trial. You have the right to counsel. You have the right to face your accuser in open court and a right to a public trial. You have the right to subpoena witnesses in your behalf. You have the right of freedom of speech and freedom of religion. You have a right against unusual and cruel punishment.
Because you also have the right of being considered innocent until you are proven guilty, you should take advantage of the services of a criminal defense attorney as soon as you are suspected of committing a crime so you are not put in the position of being questioned without an attorney present, who is there to protect your rights.
About the author:
This post was donated by Chris Keyser, a criminal defense lawyer in Minnesota.
