Developing a Defense Strategy
How criminal defense attorneys and defendants work together to create a defense strategy.
A defense strategy typically emerges as a defense attorney finds out about the prosecution's evidence and the defendant's version of events. The process of developing a defense strategy is usually fluid, and it varies from one case to another. For example, the attorney's tentative theory of defense will influence the topics the attorney asks about. The defendant's answers to those questions may in turn affect the attorney's defense strategy.
This does not mean that defendants and their attorneys collaborate to make up false stories. For a number of reasons, defendants usually benefit from telling their attorneys the truth as the defendants perceive it. However, multiple versions of truth can coexist in the defense of criminal charges. For instance, assume that a woman is charged with murdering her boyfriend. The "truth" may consist of the woman's acting in self-defense, or it may consist of the boyfriend's physical and verbal abuse of the woman in the months preceding the killing, or it may consist of both. A defense strategy is a product of a defendant and defense attorney fitting together the version of the truth that is most likely to produce a satisfactory defense outcome -- a verdict of not guilty, a verdict of guilt of a lesser charge, or an acceptable plea bargain.
Truth is a Many-Splendored Thing
The fact that a story may be told in a variety of ways does not prevent each version from being accurate. By way of analogy, consider two maps of the United States, one in which the states are depicted according to geographical boundaries, the other in which the states are depicted according to density of population. The maps will look different, yet both will be accurate. It's up to an attorney and a defendant to develop together the most legally helpful, accurate version of events relevant to the case. The result should have such characteristics as:
- consistency with objectively verifiable evidence (for example, if the police found the defendant's fingerprints at the scene of a crime, the defendant's version should account for the presence of the fingerprints)
- the potential to gain the sympathy of a judge or jury (for example, the defendant's version may demonstrate that the he or she tried to withdraw from the criminal activity in question and prevent it from happening)
- explaining why events took place as the defendant claims (for example, if the defendant claims to have been out of town on the date of the crime, the defendant's version explains why).
As may be apparent, the account of events a defendant might tell spontaneously could omit these and other elements that are both accurate and helpful. This is why defendants and their attorneys have to work together to develop a version of events that will best benefit the defense.
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