Not every defendant who faces criminal charges will proceed to trial or a plea. Many cases end up being dismissed by either the prosecutor or the court. The critical task for an effective criminal defense attorney is to determine whether there are grounds for a case to be dismissed before a plea or trial.
Some grounds for dismissal include: lack of probable cause to arrest, an illegal stop or search, lack of evidence to prove the defendant committed the crime, unavailable witness who is necessary to prove the defendant committed the crime or loss of evidence necessary to prove the defendant committed the crime.
Probable cause of arrest: In order to arrest a person, the police must have probable cause to believe the person committed a crime. The officer must have a reasonable belief based on objective factual circumstances that the person robbed the store. For example, after the liquor store robbery, a witness describes the person to the police wearing a red jacket with a dragon emblem. If the officer sees a person matching this description running away a block from the store, he likely has probable cause to arrest.
Illegal stop or search: An officer can stop a car or a person on the street under certain circumstances, such as the driver speeding or violating other traffic laws or the officer reasonably believes that a crime was committed. If an officer randomly stops a car because the person “look” due to some ethnic description, the stop is illegal and violates the person’s constitutional rights.
Police can search a person, a car, or house only if they have a search warrant or, without a warrant, under certain circumstances. Police can search a person, for example, after arresting the person for a crime or if an officer has a reasonable belief that person is carrying a deadly weapon. Police can search a car without a warrant after arresting a person for driving while intoxicated or other crime. Police can enter a house without a warrant in an emergency, such as hearing shots being fired in the house.
If the police conduct a search without a warrant and no special circumstances permitted the search, no evidence gathered in the search can be used against the defendant. If the court finds that a stop or search was illegal and the evidence is inadmissible, the defense can request that the case be dismissed.
Unavailable witness or lost evidence: If a key witness in a criminal case is unavailable to testify or the prosecution loses important physical evidence, the prosecutor may have no choice but to dismiss the case because it would be very difficult to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.
If a witness disappears, dies, or refuses to testify on Fifth Amendment grounds (because his testimony may incriminate him, in that it shows that he also committed a crime), the case may be so weak that proceeding without the witness would be impossible.
These are just some areas that the criminal defense attorney you hire should closely scrutinize. There are other avenues such as prosecutor’s discretion or after a successful appeal. So if you are arrested, call my office immediately at 310-601-7144 or email me at [email protected] so I can review your case before you proceed to agreeing to a criminal conviction or losing in trial.