5 Secrets Regarding Criminal Defense Attorneys

A lot of criminal defense attorneys get a bad rep within the legal community, and that’s partly because they are going to have to defend their clients no matter how heinous the crimes they are accused of committing. The work of criminal defense attorneys is always going to fulfill the constitutional right to a fair trial, but of course so many people see these people as representing the worst people of our societies.

In order to better understand this tough position in the legal field, we decided to talk to a handful of high-profile defense attorneys and firms. One of these firms includes Florida-based Musca Law, a st. petersburg criminal defense attorney, and we’re very excited to bring you the secretive insights we’ve gained after talking with them.

Here we are going to divulge a few of the secrets that go into the life of criminal defense attorneys, and you might be surprised that it’s a lot more fun of a job then most would probably assume.

Personal Feelings Never Trump Due Process

Even when it’s completely obvious that a client has committed a crime it’s still crucial to acknowledge their constitutional rights, and attorneys can’t let that get in the way of their defense. It may seem like a really tough part of the job, and that’s because it is tough. Criminal defense attorneys have to stand up for these types of people because someone has to, but that’s part of what makes the United States so outstanding.

Everyone gets the right to an attorney, and attorneys don’t have to personally justify anything that their clients have done, but they must protect their clients’ rights because they most certainly have them here.

Bonding is Crucial, No Matter What

It’s sometimes really difficult for criminal defense attorneys to be able to create some kind of common ground with their clients, but a lot of the defense attorneys that we talked to told us that they find ways to simply relate on a human level no matter how terrible the accusations. The client’s case is always better if there’s a good working relationship.

It’s crucial for attorneys to have the approval of their clients because trust is crucial with these sometimes life-altering decisions. Many attorneys will go about not necessarily liking their defense clients, but a lot of the times they do. There’s a rush to being someone’s lifeline in dire situations, and the responsibility of that is what criminal defense attorneys live for.

Juror Background Research

Voir dire is the act of examining potential jurors and it’s something that every criminal defense attorney needs to be good at. Defense attorneys typically have the chips stacked up against them, but there are some tactics that can be used to get the perfect jury for a defendant that can make all the difference in the world.

Some defense attorneys will talk quickly when they’re quizzing potential jurors in order to get them to knowingly or potentially even unwittingly tell them any kind of natural biases they may have. This can help defense attorneys have them eliminated from the end decision for cause.

Some of the other defense attorneys we talked to told us that they like to make some assumptions about who is open-minded or potentially anti-police, and they’ll not question them too hard because they won’t want to reveal those types of biases.

AND, of course a lot of them look up the jurors backgrounds in the end, and the reason for this is because they can start to create summations that potentially insinuate things that have happened to the jurors themselves so that they will relate more to the defendant.

Constant Jury Body Language Surveillance

Good criminal defense attorneys are capable of swiftly assessing where a jury is leaning, and many of the attorneys we talked to mention the feel of how a trial is going. Sometimes that could mean noticing when jurors laugh at defense attorney jokes or not, and noticing if they are energized by defense arguments or not too.

Defense attorneys are always going to be able to make changes on the fly based off of the body language they notice. This can mean noticing when they say something that turns a juror off, and then later going back towards that juror and rectifying what they said earlier. Sometimes they’ll focus in on a juror who laughs and then key in on them so that they can try to have them on their side for acquittal.

They’re Close-Standers for a Reason

It’s usually a symbol of solidarity when a defense attorney stands next to their client during a verdict, but there are also other reasons that potentially only lawyers understand. One of the attorneys we talked to told us that a client of his passed out when hearing his verdict of 40 years in prison, and now he always stands next to his clients during verdicts to be there for them during that moment.

But they also need to have someone there for them too, because after all it’s a very intense moment when your own client is being read their verdict that could alter their life forever.