It is important to have a criminal lawyer handling your defense

If you have been accused of committing a crime you will need to arrange to be represented in court by a criminal attorney in Salinas. In this situation you are known as the defendant, on the opposite side of the court is the prosecuting attorney. In criminal cases, the crime is considered to have been committed against the state, although there are victims, there is no plaintiff per-se as the prosecutor is an agent of the state and is charged with the responsibility of acting in the best interests of the victim.

The role of a defense attorney:

A criminal attorney in Salinas must defend his or her client in court; the objective is to cast doubt on the case brought by the prosecution. In accordance with the constitution, anyone charged with a crime is considered to be innocent until proven otherwise. It is the defense attorney’s goal to cast doubt on the evidence, convincing the jury that the accused is not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. It is not necessarily the attorney’s job to prove that the client is innocent; the law is such that the accused is innocent by default. The defense attorney will present evidence that proves that the client is not guilty and should be exonerated.

A criminal attorney in Salinas must defend the client vigorously but must not break the law to do it. An attorney cannot swear in a witness for the defense knowing in advance that any testimony that is given is untrue. In most cases, the criminal attorney does not really want to know if the client is innocent or guilty; the attorney’s defense can be more flexible when the truth is unknown during the trial.

In the event the evidence of guilt is overwhelming the criminal attorney will want to know as the defense tactics will be such that the lightest sentence will be handed down.