Murder and manslaughter are two of the most serious crimes there are. These can land you in jail for the rest of your life or result in the death penalty – which is used in Utah.
Defense strategies for murder and manslaughter start with weeding out any evidence that was seized illegally. Then we look to mitigating your involvement in the crime, such as by providing an alibi, lack of motive, and other factors. We may also be able to mitigate the charges against you by getting murder charges reduced to manslaughter, depending on what happened. Lastly, we look to explicit defenses, like claims of self-defense, and potential plea deals to reduce sentences.
For help with your case, turn to our Salt Lake City murder defense lawyers at Overson & Bugden at (801) 758-2287.
4th, 5th, and 6th Amendment Rights in an Investigation
For the police to seize evidence and use it against you, they have to follow the rules under the 4th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. This means:
- Getting a warrant signed by a judge for an arrest or search, with limited exceptions.
- Having reasonable suspicion to stop you and talk to you about a crime.
- Having probable cause for an arrest or search.
Once they arrest you, they also need to respect your 5th and 6th Amendment rights. This means allowing you to invoke your right to remain silent or your right to an attorney, and it means reading you your Miranda rights.
Suppression of Illegally Obtained Evidence
If the police violate these rules in obtaining evidence to use against you, we can stop them from using the evidence. Our Park City, UT criminal defense lawyers can seek to have evidence “suppressed” if it was obtained illegally.
This could mean blocking essential evidence so they cannot prove the case. It could even mean throwing out a confession because they did not respect your demands to talk to a lawyer. All kinds of rights violations can result in the police and prosecution losing evidence.
Rules of Evidence
The Utah Rules of Evidence also prevent certain evidence from being used. Some of the most important rules do the following:
- Irrelevant evidence is blocked, so they cannot go off on tangents.
- Prejudicial evidence that outweighs its actual value to the question of whether or not you killed someone might be blocked.
- Character evidence is often blocked.
- Speculation cannot be introduced; witnesses can only testify as to things they observed.
- Hearsay – statements made out of court – cannot be repeated, except in narrow exceptions (e.g., if it was a statement you made out of court).
There are also rules about how scientific evidence can be introduced that might block junk science from being used against you.
Illegal Identifications and Line-Ups
Some of the worst evidence in murder cases comes in the form of witnesses identifying defendants through line-ups or other methods. These procedures have special rules to follow so that the police officers do not accidentally or intentionally suggest the person they want the witness to pick.
There are also factors we may be able to introduce expert testimony on that could show a witness’ identification is weaker or inaccurate, such as when the witness identifies someone of a different race than themselves or when their vision was focused on a weapon instead of the offender’s face.
How Alibis Work in Murder Cases
Having an alibi is not automatic proof that you didn’t commit the crime. However, an alibi is a fact we can introduce to potentially upend charges in a few ways:
- If you have a strong alibi, the police and prosecutors may find their proof does not counteract your alibi, and they don’t have enough evidence to prove your guilt. This should result in them dropping the charges.
- A judge can also dismiss charges based on a strong alibi.
- An alibi can provide reasonable doubt for a jury to believe you could not have committed the crime.
However, alibis can be questioned or brought into doubt, and it may come down to the jury’s decision of whether they believe your alibi or not.
Lacking Motive Can Introduce Reasonable Doubt
Motive is not an actual requirement of murder or manslaughter charges, so a missing motive is not enough to block charges automatically. However, it can bring the prosecution’s accusations into question if the jury will not believe you had reason to kill someone.
Using Manslaughter as a Defense to Murder
Manslaughter is a lower offense than murder, and you can actually claim manslaughter as a defense to murder charges by saying no, this crime was not murder; it was actually manslaughter.
Mental State Differences
Murder typically requires intent to kill, while manslaughter requires recklessness or the intent to commit another crime that ended up causing their death.
However, manslaughter can also result from a situation where you could not form the intent to kill, even though you did end up killing someone.
Reasonable Provocation
This usually comes from “provocation.” That is to say that you experienced some trigger that pushed you into killing the person, and you could not restrain yourself.
This is often called a “crime of passion,” though that is not exactly a clear legal term. With provocation, you instead claim that you could not form the intent to kill because of circumstances that would cause extreme emotional distress to a reasonable person.
Other Mitigation
Your mental state can also be mitigated in other cases, such as a mistaken belief that you needed to defend yourself. Although the killing might not be justified as self-defense in that case, it can still be reduced from intentional murder.
Is a Self-Defense Claim Possible?
Self-defense requires a reasonable belief that deadly force was needed to defend yourself (or another) from deadly force. The force you used must be reasonable; you cannot use deadly force against a threat that is not deadly.
Self-defense claims are also not allowed if you were the initial aggressor, unless you first tried to retreat/get away from the danger.
Is an Insanity Plea Possible?
Insanity pleas say that you could not form the criminal intent required because you were suffering from a mental or physical illness at the time. In an insanity plea, you do not avoid penalties; you may still face time in a mental institution.
If this is not possible, a diminished capacity or mistaken belief plea may be. This says your intent is reduced because something was affecting your ability to think straight or you were under a mistaken belief that would have justified the killing if it were correct.
Can a Plea Deal Reduce the Sentence?
Murder cases are hard to bring and require a lot of police work, case building, and court time. The victim’s family and the prosecutor’s office may want the case to simply be over, and they may be willing to let a cooperative defendant plead guilty to another offense, such as negligent homicide or aggravated assault.
We cannot accept a plea deal on your behalf; it is always up to you to say yes or no.
Call Our Murder Defense Lawyers in Utah Today
Call (801) 758-2287 for a free case evaluation with Overson & Bugden’s Salt Lake City, UT manslaughter defense lawyers.
