If you have been arrested, you need a criminal attorney because when it comes to your future, you should not take any chances. When it comes to criminal law, it is critical that you hire an attorney with significant experience. Since your future is on the line, you need someone who understands the law and how to apply it to your benefit.
Due Process and the Fourteenth Amendment
When reviewing a case, we are always looking to see if any laws were violated during your arrest. Many people are familiar with the Fourth Amendment and how it protects against illegal search and seizure. This is often used to benefit clients who are being charged with a crime based on evidence obtained illegally by law enforcement. While this is one of the more familiar constitutional amendments, equally important is the Fourteenth Amendment, which lists out the right to due process.
According to due process, you need to be clearly told why you are being arrested and what law you violated. The Supreme Court has heard cases involving this amendment and made rulings that have provided further clarity regarding what rights you actually have. As a criminal attorney, we will use these rulings to demonstrate our client’s innocence or why they should not be tried in the first place. For example, according to the interpretation of due process, if a law is too vague or a portion of it is too vague, it could be an illegal law and void. If you were arrested based on a law that was too vague to count, you could have the charges dropped. For example, a law was passed that used the term “gangster.” Since “gangster” was not properly defined and too vague, people arrested under that law could not be. Simultaneously, the court has ruled very narrowly in its interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the point that it has been applied to the interpretation of laws for individual, specific cases.
Due process has also been interpreted to include the fact that laws must be able to be understood by a layperson (someone outside of the legal profession). In other words, if you broke a law that you never knew existed and the crime you committed did not appear to be illegal to the common person, you should not be charged with a crime.
Why You Need a Criminal Attorney
The law is complicated because there are so many, and each law has been interpreted as a result of court rulings. To understand what you were charged with and how you need to be familiar with laws and be able to review case law to determine if any precedents have been set. The expertise of your attorney will make or break your case because knowledge is supremely valuable in any criminal defense. It can be the smallest technicality that often leads to victory. For this reason, you need to hire a criminal attorney who understands how to interpret the law and apply it to your case in order to achieve the best possible outcome.
