If the evidence in your drug case seems stacked against you, you might be worried that your future is in jeopardy. While prosecutors might lead you to believe that your best option is to take a plea deal that threatens you with jail time and other harsh penalties, don’t let them pressure you into something that isn’t right for you.
Instead, make sure that you’re thoroughly assessing your case to determine your best course of action. After all, you may be able to use legal strategies to poke massive holes in the prosecution’s case which, in turn, may lead to a more favorable outcome.
The suppression of evidence
One way that you may be able to beat the prosecution is by suppressing the evidence that it intends to present against you. The prosecution is required to demonstrate that the evidence being submitted to the court is what it purports it to be, and that it hasn’t been compromised in some fashion. Prosecutors also have to ensure that evidence was collected in a legally valid way before it can be used against you. Otherwise, you may be able to block that evidence from coming into court.
How can you suppress evidence?
Depending on the facts of your case, there might be several ways for you to try to suppress the prosecution’s evidence. Here are some of the options that may be available to you:
- Illegal search and seizure: You have Constitutional protections against illegal searches and seizures. This typically means that the police must have a warrant before they can search you, your car, or your home. But there are a number of exceptions to the warrant requirement. The police sometimes misapply these exceptions, though, which can either intentionally or unintentionally violate your rights. When this happens, the evidence that’s seized is considered to be tainted by illegality, and it, therefore, can’t be used against you in court. These circumstances are often seen in the context of a traffic stop that was conducted without legal justification.
- Chain of custody issues: If evidence isn’t collected in accordance with standard police practices, the evidence itself may be compromised in some fashion. If that occurs, you might be able to bring the reliability of the evidence into question so much that the court finds it inadmissible.
- Failure to appear at a deposition: You need to know how the prosecution’s witnesses are going to testify at trial. Only then can you be confident that you know how to counter their testimony and how to attack their credibility. The best way to do that is to depose those witnesses. However, if you subpoena witnesses for depositions and they fail to appear, you can ask a judge to deny them the ability to testify against you at trial. After all, that’s only fair.
Use the rules of evidence to your favor
These are just some of the strategies that you may be able to use to protect yourself in your drug case. There may be even more effective evidence-based arguments that you can make to counter the prosecution’s claims.
To learn the best strategy for you, though, you may need to discuss your case with an attorney who has proven themselves successful in these kinds of case. Therefore, if you’re looking to have an aggressive advocate on your side, now may be the time for you to reach out to an experienced criminal defense legal team to discuss the specific and unique facts of your case.