Know Your Legal Rights in the Criminal ProcessFailure to understand one's legal rights can lead to self-incrimination, false confessions, eyewitness misidentification and wrongful convictions. Having an attorney can avoid the above negative consequences, all the while protecting your legal rights throughout the criminal process.Anyone who is unfortunate enough to fall under investigation or arrest by law enforcement must learn their legal rights, or else. Fortunately, in the United States everyone has the constitutional right to legal counsel at all the crucial stages of a police investigation. Furthermore, it is always in a suspect's best interests to retain legal counsel at the earliest opportunity if they want to avoid negative ramifications. Sometimes the most crucial time to hire an attorney is before the suspect is pulled into interrogation. That way, he or she can be effectively protected against the threat of self-incrimination. Self-incrimination is a very real and valid threat, even if the suspect is entirely innocent of committing a criminal offense. In fact, it is not uncommon for police investigators to pull out all the stops when securing a criminal conviction. They commonly use underhanded and deceitful tactics to instill fear in a suspect in order to produce a false confession. False confessions are a leading cause of wrongful convictions in the United States, so much that the legal community has recognized their merit and used such premise to exonerate wrongfully convicted and incarcerated prisoners from our nation's prisons. Police lineups are a cause for concern for potential suspects. One cannot rely on eyewitness testimony to set them free. Quite the contrary, eyewitness misidentifications are the leading cause of wrongful convictions, for this reason, having an attorney prior to participating in the police lineup is absolutely critical if the suspect wants to avoid an eyewitness misidentification that can cost them their freedom. It is always best to retain legal counsel at the first opportunity in a criminal investigation. A New York City criminal defense attorney will be your greatest asset during this difficult time in your life. They will ensure that your 5th Amendment rights against self-incrimination, your 6th Amendment rights to Assistance of Counsel and our Due Process rights (5th & 14th Amendments) are vehemently guarded against damaging admissions or mistaken identifications. |