A person charged with a homicide could be facing the death penalty or a life sentence in prison. The general definition of a homicide is the killing of a human being due to the act or the omission of an act of another person. A homicide can include a variety of different charges including first degree murder, second degree murder, voluntary manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter. If you are facing a homicide, you are dealing with one of the most serious and complex offenses that a person can be charged with. Not only has someone else’s life been taken, but you are now fighting for your own life. Even if there is a good defense to your case, such as mistaken identity, self-defense, or any other situation showing that you were not at fault, you will still have to go through an incredibly difficult and long process where you need the best attorneys to defend you every step of the way.
Law enforcement will do an enormous amount of work on a homicide case compared to any other type of offense because it involves a killing of another human being. It is important that you have an attorney that knows how to independently investigate the incident. You need someone that knows how to deal with DNA results, fingerprint results, and any other type of evidence that may exist in a homicide case. Hepburn, Hernandez, and Jung Trial Attorneys has the experience to defend against these serious allegations. Attorneys at HHJ have the experience of working on high profile homicides and know how to effectively litigate a homicide from start to finish.
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Once a person gets charged with a homicide, the first thing they should do is contact an attorney. Most of the time, a person charged with murder or manslaughter will try to call someone while they are in jail. The most important thing to remember is that you should never talk about what happened over the phone. Each phone call that is made from jail is recorded and they are always used against a defendant at a later time. Words and conversations can be twisted by the prosecution to be used against a defendant. The best thing to tell your family and friends is that your attorney told you to NOT talk about the case at all. The attorney that you hire can meet you in jail and you can speak to him or her in confidence. If you are out of jail, it is also important not to talk to people about the case through text messages or by the web. Email, Facebook and other social media forums are all forms of evidence that can be retrieved later by the prosecution and used against you at trial.
A criminal defense attorney must know the strengths and weaknesses of a case in order to effectively represent a client charged with murder. It is crucial to hire an attorney that has litigated a murder case from start to finish. The process starts when the client is arraigned and ends when the jury comes back with a verdict. The reason why this is important is because it gives the trial attorney experience on how to defend a person at each stage of the case, including pretrial, negotiations, trial, and potentially after trial at sentencing. Without having the experience of litigating a murder case at trial, an attorney may lack the experience and fold under pressure or make serious mistakes throughout the trial. Just like a doctor can learn in medical school how to conduct a surgical procedure, learning the procedure and actually doing the procedure are two completely different things. The surgeon who has successfully conducted a number of advanced procedures is the person that you should trust the most and feel comfortable hiring. The same goes for a murder trial attorney—you want someone with a wealth of experience. If you are charged with murder or manslaughter, you have to have an experienced murder trial attorney.
The other reason why you need an experienced trial attorney if you are being charged with murder is because the prosecuting attorney will negotiate the case differently depending on who is representing the defendant. If the prosecuting attorney believes that the attorney representing the defendant does not go to trial and lacks the skills required to be successful in a murder trial, they will have no incentive to make a good settlement offer. Hepburn, Hernandez, and Jung Trial Attorneys bring you the experience and skill to fight against an accusation of murder or manslaughter. They will ensure that every stone is unturned and every piece of exculpatory evidence is brought to light to ensure that you have the best legal defense against the most serious of charges.
