During a criminal trial, both sides will present evidence that they hope will earn their side a victory, but sometimes this evidence can be suppressed after it has been entered into court, meaning the judge or jury has to pretend it never existed. But why might evidence be suppressed after it is entered at trial or withheld altogether? In today’s blog, we take a closer look at some of the reasons why your lawyer may push to have evidence suppressed at your criminal trial.
Reasons To Suppress Evidence
If any of these issues are present during your criminal trial, your lawyer may push to have the judge suppress evidence that has been entered.
1. Illegally Obtained – If you can prove that the evidence was illegally collected, you can have it suppressed. It doesn’t matter if police caught you with 15 pounds of heroin in your vehicle, if police violated your rights when collecting the evidence, it can be suppressed from the court record. If police search your property without consent or a warrant or they violate your rights in any other way when building a case against you, that evidence can be thrown out of the court record.
2. Chain Of Custody Errors – There is also some basic chain of custody requirements that police officers and other law enforcement officials must follow when collecting and entering evidence into the record. For example, if evidence is mishandled in the lab, mislabeled in the filing center or there is questions as to the legitimacy of the evidence based on how it was handled by police, it can be suppressed. If the normal chain of custody has been broken and the legitimacy of the evidence cannot be confirmed, a judge may throw it out.
3. Failure To Read Miranda Rights – Now, it’s important to realize that just because police don’t read you the Miranda rights, it doesn’t mean that you can have all the charges dropped or the evidence thrown out. That said, if during the process of an arrest, the defendant is not informed of their Miranda rights and then they offer up information that police then attempt to use against the defendant, that type of evidence may be suppressed. Similarly, if a suspect requests a lawyer during an interrogation and police refuse to comply with this request, further statements and evidence may be suppressed in court.
We’ll work on putting the best defense together for your case, and we also know how to challenge the legitimacy of evidence and suppress it when it has been wrongfully entered. For more information on how we can help you win your case, or for help with any other criminal matter, give the team at Appelman Law Firm a call today at (952) 224-2277.
