Constitutional rights do not and should not waiver in the face of looming criminal charges. If you have been charged with a crime, you may feel isolated, alone, and up against a criminal justice system out to get you. Despite all of this, know that your constitutional rights remain and are designed to protect you. In fact, any violation of your constitutional rights can be used as a highly effective defense strategy. Here is more on your constitutional rights and how violations of those rights can be extremely relevant in your criminal case.
Why Constitutional Violations Are Relevant to Your Criminal Case
The rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution are extensive. As they pertain to the criminal justice system, some of the key constitutional rights that may be relevant in your criminal case include:
- Protection against unlawful search and seizure. Law enforcement officers may not search your home, car, or person without a warrant or probable cause.
- The right to be informed of your Miranda Rights. The Fifth Amendment of the Constitution protects criminal suspects from self-incrimination. In other words, this is the foundation of a criminal suspect’s right to remain silent. Suspects have the right to be informed of this during arrest and at trial.
- The right to competent legal counsel. You not only have the right to an attorney, but you have the right to competent legal representation.
Violations of these rights can have unique and important consequences for your criminal case. For instance, if your Miranda rights have been violated because, say a police officer did not inform you of them during an interrogation, any confession or statement you made during the interrogation is likely to be inadmissible at trial.
Alternatively, if evidence was obtained during an unlawful search, your attorney can file a motion to withhold or suppress this evidence so that it is not admitted at trial. This means it will not be able to be used against you in court.
Without the use of an illegally obtained confession or unlawfully obtained evidence, the prosecution may be left lacking in evidence to support a case against you or, at the very least, their case against you can be substantially weakened to the point where your chances at trial will be much improved. It is not uncommon that, in the event that a key piece of evidence or a confession is tossed out as inadmissible that the charges against a defendant are dropped or the case ends in an acquittal.
If your trial proceeds despite violations of your constitutional rights, including ineffective legal counsel, and the violation of your rights is a contributing factor to a guilty verdict, you always have the right to appeal your conviction based on that violation. An appeal is a request to a higher court to review the trial court record. Based on that review, the appeals court will render a decision as to whether justice was done or not.
Criminal Defense Attorneys
At Navarrete & Schwartz, we comb through your case to help ensure that your Constitutional rights were always preserved and protected. If not, we know how to use these violations to undermine whatever case the prosecution may have against you. We are proud to serve the residence of Midland, Texas. Contact us today.