Criminal Case Defense Analysis When a person gets arrested for a crime, that person will remain a suspect until proven guilty otherwise in court. This person will then have the chance to avail himself with the best legal representation available. “A defense consists of evidence and arguments offered by a defendant and his or her attorney(s) to show why that person should not be held liable for a criminal charge” (Schmalleger, 2010).
Generally speaking, there are two types of defense: factual and legal. When talking about factual defense, this simply means that the defendant claims that there was no crime committed. An example of a factual defense is when the defendant claims that he or she was not in the crime scene, usually called an alibi or proof beyond reasonable doubt does not exist. There are two possible outcomes on a factual defense: acquittal or lesser punishment. A legal defense in contrast is when a defendant may confess to committing the crime but disagrees with his or her accountability because of a certain variable supporting the act such as mental incapacity or insanity. In a legal defense, factual guilt is immaterial for assertion and the defendant may defend his or her act with justifications, excuses or prove that constitutional rights or other laws have been violated by the government concerning evidence, relevant materials or witnesses about his or her case. A legal defense may have multiple outcomes such as acquittal, reduction in punishment, exclusion of evidence, exclusion of witnesses and more. There are two forms of legal defenses. “The two forms of legal defenses are justifications, in which the defendant admits to committing the act in question but claims is was necessary in order to avoid some greater evil, and excuses, in which the defendant claims that some personal condition or circumstance at the time of the act was such that he or she should not be held accountable under the