Criminal law in Minnesota is different from other areas of law, and that is important when considering who to hire as your criminal defense lawyer. When you seek a lawyer for personal injury, or wrongful termination, employment issues, or other lawsuits, the question is most often “do I have a case?” Your consultation involves a fact exploration to decide if you have a good case to begin litigation. Attorneys often are paid out of settlement or damage, so their fee is dependent on the outcome When you are charged with a criminal offense, and consult with a criminal defense lawyer, circumstances are very different. It means there is already a case, and it has a court file number, and the State has a lawyer, and that means you need one too. You are facing the most serious consequences a government can impose. Jail. Prison. The collateral consequences of employment, licenses, etc. are also on the line. A good criminal defense lawyer charges flat fees. That means, you pay them immediately, and they handle the case from the beginning to end, so you are paying in advance for future work. That doesn’t mean the fee isn’t refundable. It simply means that you are giving you criminal defense lawyer security to handle the entire case because they have to stick to it. While this seems perhaps strange or risky, there is a reason behind it. A criminal defense attorney does not need to determine whether litigation can be started. It already has, and there is a lot of work to do quickly. And if you are facing a criminal charge, the outcome is either (1) Conviction, (2) acquittal, (3) dismissal (4) plea to lesser charge. Negotiating these outcomes, or trying a case to a jury, is time consuming, and requires a criminal defense lawyer with a reputation for jury trials. The trouble of a jury trial, and the chances of the State to win or lose, really drive the result of a case. Even if a trial doesn’t happen, aggressive representation, negotiation, and motion practice, and the clear threat of trial, are all necessary for a criminal defense lawyer to achieve the optimal result. A common mantra at The Law Office of Alex DeMarco is “a good lawyer prepares to beat a case, prepares for trial, but also prepares to lose.” A savvy defense lawyer must always be prepared for trial, but must also be prepared for sentencing if they lose. If a case cannot be won, sentencing itself is also an important phase that can make the difference between sitting in a cage, and staying free. The other reason for flat fees is that a criminal defense attorney cannot charge a fee for a specific outcome, and cannot withdraw from the case without a motion hearing before the court. This is because criminal law involves constitutional rights, and the very freedom of a person. So a criminal defense lawyer is very much bound to you until the very end of the… Read more {+}

According to a recent story from NPR, the Virginia Beach Police Department categorically lied to defendants to obtain false confessions in serious felony matters. “Investigators from Herring’s office found that the police department was using the forged documents as “supposed evidence” to try to get confessions, cooperation and convictions. The police department would lie and say the suspect’s DNA was connected with the crime and provide that in the document, which had forged letterhead and contact information, according to the investigation.” The sad truth: Police officers are, within certain limits, allowed to coerce statements from defendants using false information. False Confessions are often the result of misstatements or outright lies by the police department. Police can tell some lies to try to get a suspect to talk, but the Supreme Court in Minnesota in particular as warned that law enforcement agencies that do so regularly are “on thin ice.” Increasingly, more judges in more jurisdictions are suppressing false confessions, meaning that it cannot be used against a defendant in a jury trial. I have raised successful challenges to false information resulting in false confessions before. Over my years of practice I have actually seen lies like this told to defendants, that “we have your DNA” or “your fingerprints are on the weapon” when in fact it wasn’t true. In Minnesota I suppressed a confession by a juvenile to a criminal sexual conduct case in which the officers misrepresented to the defendant that the accusations “were not very serious” and they just wanted his “side of the story.” I recently won a murder case in which Aaron Zirzow of the Minneapolis Police Department Crime Lab was caught lying about their firearm tests and represented falsely that the test fired bullet casing “matched” the casing found at a murder scene. The test was not even performed the same brand or materials used in the casing found at the scene, and the state strategically arranged microscopic photos and alignments to make it look as though the same marks were left. However before even obtaining that false evidence, the Minneapolis Police represented to the defendant that his fingerprints and DNA were on the gun, which wasn’t true. They obtained a sort of partial false confession from my client. The jury found the defendant NOT GUILTY, despite the State calling over 20 witnesses. The sole testimony presented by the defense was that of the defendant, and defendant had been accused of shooting someone before. If you’ve been accused of a crime and forced to confess because you thought it would go better for you, or if you’ve been told the forensic evidence in your case is hopeless to overcome, you need to hire a Criminal Defense Attorney, like myself, who practices in Minnesota. I have the competence to dig into forensic evidence, consult experts, and learn the latest science and challenge the state’s evidence. If you’ve been accused of a crime in Ramsey County, Hennepin County, Washington County, Dakota County, Rice County or anywhere… Read more {+}

Posts Tagged Criminal Attorney Minnesota

How much does a criminal defense lawyer cost?

Virginia Beach Police use forged DNA reports to obtain false confessions

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Criminal Defense