When you’ve been charged with a criminal offense, you have to analyze the evidence that the prosecution intends to present against you. Only then will you know what you’re truly up against. But as you engage in that process, you might be dismayed to learn that the state has several witnesses prepared to testify against you. This reality can leave you feeling crushed and worried about the ramifications of a potential conviction.
While this stress is well-founded, you shouldn’t let it paralyze you, thereby disrupting your ability to create an effective criminal defense. Instead, you should use it as a motivating factor to find weaknesses in the prosecution’s case that you can then exploit to your advantage. One way you might be able to do this is by attacking the credibility of the prosecution’s witnesses.
Why witness credibility matters
When your case heads to trial, the jury will be tasked with assigning the appropriate amount of weight to the evidence presented. Therefore, if the jury finds a witness untrustworthy, then their testimony may not be all that persuasive, even if the their actual words unequivocally implicate you in the crime in question. Therefore, diminishing the credibility of the prosecution’s witnesses could make all the difference in your case.
How to attack witness credibility
There are several ways to attack a witness’s credibility. As you prepare your criminal defense, then, you need to consider each of these options to see if any of them are applicable to your set of circumstances:
- Highlighting inconsistent statements: Any change to a witness’s account of events can be used to attack their credibility and the reliability of their testimony. Although you can compare statements they gave to the police to their trial testimony, you can also depose key witnesses to lock down their statements under oath. This will also give you a transcript that you can refer to at trial if doing so will assist you in pointing out inconsistencies in their story.
- Demonstrating motive: In some instances, witnesses are motivated to testify against a defendant. This is often seen when the defendant has been offered a plea deal in exchange for their testimony, or when they otherwise have something to gain by testifying against the defendant.
- Showing bias: A lot of witnesses have biases that come out in the way they act towards those who have been accused of criminal wrongdoing. These biases needed to be highlighted for the jury. For example, if a police officer was previously disciplined for treating people of a certain race or gender unfairly, then you need to point that out for the jury so that they can use that in their credibility determination.
- Pointing out criminal history: Not all criminal history is admissible when attacking the credibility of a witness. However, criminal convictions for offenses related to dishonesty are probably going to be fair game. So, before heading into trial, be sure to research the prosecution’s witnesses to see if they have any criminal history that you can use against them.
Don’t let faulty testimony lead to your criminal conviction
Your future and your freedom are at stake in your criminal case. As a result, you should do everything you can to protect your interests. After all, you don’t want to be convicted and punished on weak and beatable evidence. So, get to work now identifying weaknesses in the prosecution’s case so that you can rest assured that you’ve done everything possible to protect your interests.