Criminal charges can feel insurmountable, but you have rights that the authorities cannot trample. Call a criminal defense lawyer for help immediately and get started on your defense. The sooner you call, the more time they may have to prepare your case and assert an effective defense.

Criminal cases generally begin with an arrest. You may be taken into custody and questioned by the police before you are formally charged. Your attorney should help you post bail so you do not have to await your trial from a jail cell. Your attorney should review your situation and determine the best defense strategy. Common strategies include suppressing illegal evidence, providing an alibi, or working to raise reasonable doubt in the minds of jurors. If you are unfortunately convicted, your attorney should immediately file an appeal.

The Liberty Law Team can help you start with a free, private case review when you call our criminal defense lawyers at (215) 826-3314.

How You May Be Arrested

Generally, the police need a warrant to arrest someone, although exceptions to this rule exist. Arrest warrants must be based on “probable cause” that shows a crime has been committed and that the suspect likely committed it. An impartial judge must approve the warrant before the police can arrest you.

Warrantless arrests are possible under certain circumstances. If the police witness a crime in progress, they may make an arrest without a warrant. The police might also arrest someone without a warrant if there are emergency circumstances that make getting a warrant impossible or unreasonable.

Een if the police claim an exception for a warrantless arrest, our criminal defe3nse attorneys might be able to prove otherwise ad have certain evidence excluded from the case if it was obtained pursuant to the unlawful arrest.

You might instead be taken into custody by turning yourself in. If you know the police are planning to arrest you, turning yourself in might be a part of your legal strategy to defend yourself. Jurors often perceive defendants who cooperate with the police as having nothing to hide.

Securing Bail in a Cheltenham Criminal Case

If you are criminally charged, you may be detained unless you secure bail. While bail hearings usually happen early in the judicial process, not everyone is released, and some must wait for their trials from behind bars.

Regardless of what the judge decides, prosecutors cannot interfere with your right to have a bail hearing. According to 42 Pa.C.S. § 5701, all prisoners are bailable unless they are charged with a capital offense or an offense where the maximum penalty is life in prison.

Alternatively, you may be denied bail if the court determines that no combination of bail conditions is enough to ensure your return to court or the community’s safety. As such, most defendants may post bail, barring very special circumstances.

In the past, bail was almost exclusively a sum of money determined by the court that a defendant had to pay. While cash bail still exists, the judicial system in Pennsylvania has been moving away from it and tends to favor non-monetary bail conditions.

Defense Strategies in Criminal Cases

Every criminal case is unique, and you need a defense strategy tailored to your specific needs. Below are a few common defense tactics worth discussing with your attorney.

Suppressing Inadmissible Evidence

Not all evidence may be heard in court. If the evidence does not meet the standards set by the Pennsylvania Rules of Evidence, or it was illegally obtained, it may be excluded from the trial and not considered by the jury.

Evidence may be suppressed in a couple of different ways. First, we can have evidence suppressed before the trial by filing pretrial motions. We must have proof that the evidence in question is inadmissible, and if the judge agrees, it may be excluded from the trial.

If evidence cannot be suppressed ahead of the trial, we can object to it before the prosecutors try to introduce it in court. The judge could sustain our objection, and the evidence may not be admitted in court.

Alibi

Some defendants can definitively prove that they were not the person who committed the alleged crime. If you can prove that you were somewhere else when the crime occurred, we can assert your alibi as a defense. If successful, the charges against you should be quickly dropped.

We might prove your alibi with records indicating your whereabouts during the crime. Receipts, security camera footage, and witnesses who can verify your claims should be gathered if available.

Raising Reasonable Doubt

One tried and true strategy is to raise reasonable doubt in the minds of the jurors. Prosecutors must prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt to secure a. Jurors are often instructed not to convict if they have any reasonable doubt about the defendant’s guilt. All we need to do to avoid a conviction is raise some reasonable doubt.

How we raise reasonable doubt will depend on the nature of the evidence and the criminal charges. Prosecutors might present lots of circumstantial evidence, but nothing truly definitive. This might give us the room we need to highlight flaws in the case and raise reasonable doubt.

What Happens if You Are Convicted in a Cheltenham Criminal Trial?

If you are convicted, you may still have legal options for fighting the charges. Your attorney should help you file an appeal almost immediately. If successful, your appeal may lead to a new trial and a second chance to defend yourself.

After a conviction, defendants may file a direct appeal. We have 30 days from the entry of the court’s order to file a direct appeal according to 210 Pa Code Rule § 903(a). As such, we must move fast.

At the appeal hearing, the court will not consider new evidence or arguments, and issues of guilt and innocence are not determined. Instead, the court will examine the trial court record for legal errors that might have unfairly affected the outcome of the case.

The court will only check for legal errors that we specifically mention in the appeal. If the court finds errors, they may reverse the conviction and send the case back to the trial court for a new trial with a new jury and corrections made to address the legal errors.

Get Help Now From Our Cheltenham Criminal Defense Attorneys

The Liberty Law Team can help you start with a free, private case review when you call our criminal defense lawyers at (215) 826-3314.