Building a Maryland Robbery Defense
Robbery charges in Maryland can come with serious penalties. Individuals facing charges should know that their case depends on the strength of their defense. Various preparations will be made for a trial, including conducting a full investigation on behalf of the defense and a solid review of the pros and cons with an attorney to determine what the appropriate strategy is moving forward.
A person should contact a distinguished robbery lawyer with experience handling these kinds of cases. Robbery cases have complex issues. These cases require intense investigation and preparation to make sure the client’s rights are protected.
Types of Evidence Used When Building a Defense
Forensic evidence could be in many different forms when building a robbery defense in Maryland. Defense attorneys deal with forensic evidence by making sure all forensic evidence is provided to them and they are comfortable with the results that the State gives. The defense attorney may have their own experts review the forensic evidence to determine its veracity and attempt to launch challenges as to how the forensic evidence was gathered or the conclusions that were drawn with respect to that forensic evidence as it is ultimately presented in Court.
The document-based evidence is used by the defense just as any other evidence would be used. If there are documents that tend to assist the defense in its argument with respect to the case, those documents, if properly authenticated, will be used in its direct examination or cross-examination of the State’s witnesses, and make the appropriate arguments, ultimately to the jury, about what that evidence means.
GATHERING EVIDENCE
An experienced defense attorney determines potential inaccuracies by determining what methods were used to gather the evidence; what methods were used to test the evidence; what methods were used to preserve the evidence; and launch challenges if particular protocols were not followed during any number of those proceedings.
Experts can be used to explain protocols, offer alternative conclusions to those reached by the State. ultimately offer conclusions that might differ from the State, and offer challenges to the evidence that the Government presents in court.
ISSUES REGARDING EYE-WITNESS TESTIMONY
Eye-witness testimony, in any case, is testimony that could be considered very important for the prosecution. But, it could also be easy to challenge, depending on what kind of biases are outlined by that eyewitness testimony, or challenging exactly what was seen and how it was seen. Eye-witness testimony is something the defense can challenge if the appropriate amount of investigation is done to find out what the validity of it is and what, if any, biases the eyewitness himself might hold against the defendant.
Defense attorneys deal with eye-witnesses when building a Maryland robbery defense by conducting their own investigation into what the witness saw; how they saw it and what, if any, relationship they might have with the case, with the defendant, or any other party involved, to determine biases or determine the possibility of the testimony itself as being invalid.
Constitutional Issues
Constitutional issues in a robbery case include whether or not evidence was properly gathered, whether or not that evidence is properly admissible under the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, whether or not speedy trial exists, whether there are issues that exist under the Fifth Amendment (right against self-incrimination). Just like criminal cases, robbery cases are full of Constitutional issues that are usually addressed at motion hearings before the matters are brought to court for a trial.
Constitutional issues can greatly impact a case. If a violation of the Constitution is raised properly by an experienced attorney at a motions hearing, that argument could keep certain evidence from being brought into court, and sometimes that evidence itself could mean the difference between the prosecution being able to prove its case or not.
Contacting an Attorney
A person should hire a robbery attorney who has a great deal of experience defending clients charged with robbery because of the complexity of the charges.
Inexperienced attorneys are not aware of the kinds of evidence a jury would like to hear about in a particular case. They are not aware of how to best attack the elements of defense the prosecutor wants to bring to light. Additionally, robberies are often dependent on things like video surveillance that have rules of admissibility for prosecutors and those rules of admissibility may not be addressed.
Hiring a lawyer to build a Maryland robbery defense is important because the lawyer understands and recognizes constitutional issues and other defense opportunities.