Choosing a Homicide Defense Attorney

Answer:

With regards to criminal charges being filed against a person, it is inarguable that one of the most serious charges for someone to be charged with is murder. It’s unimaginable. It’s greater than shoplifting, robbery, or most crimes you can think of. When you’re being charged with murder, there are a few rungs to it. There’s negligent homicide, there’s manslaughter, and there’s murder, where you start getting into intent and other things. It’s important that you have a good attorney that understands how to navigate through the processes of a murder charge, particularly here in Arizona, because there are certain provisions here in Arizona, like the difference between murder two and manslaughter. If certain things are not found, they may not be able to convict you of murder two, but they can convict you of manslaughter if they’re not successful on murder two. The issue of self-defense comes up here. One aspect of Arizona law is that, if you can forge a successful defense of self-defense as a justification to murder, the prosecution now has the burden to prove that you were not acting in self-defense. What’s more, they have to prove that beyond a reasonable doubt, just like they’d have to prove the rest of the case. You want to be very selective when choosing an attorney to deal with your murder case. As it relates to capital murder, particularly in Arizona, our criminal code actually limits the number of attorneys that can practice in capital murder cases, where you or your family member can be sentenced to death, so be careful. There are criminal law experts out there. There are some folks that are not experts but that are very handy in dealing with it. Murder cases are very complex because you have to deal with multiple factors, including mental health statuses, family history, how the incident happened, etc, while also dealing with volumes and volumes of evidence to get the best possible outcome for someone that is charged with murder. Just because a homicide has been committed, doesn’t mean that the person is guilty of murder. You need to talk with a skilled attorney that can sit with you and go over the facts of your case to develop a plan to present an adequate defense for you.