Fighting For A Reduced Criminal Sentence

When Your Criminal Defense Is Years Of Emotional And Psychological Abuse: How To Prove It

If you are in the position of being charged with murder, your defense attorney will look at your background to help build your case. For example, if you suffered years of emotional and/or psychological abuse, it may have been the very catalyst leading to the breaking point at which you killed your abuser. This can be very difficult to prove in criminal court because of the lack of physical evidence and often a lack of witnesses. Here is how your criminal defense attorney would have to prove that these conditions existed and and led you to commit your crime.

Years of Psychiatric Care and Therapy

The first thing your lawyer will want and need access to are your mental health records. To prove that you suffered intense emotional and/or psychological abuse, you need documented treatment records. These could include inpatient treatment records as well as group therapy and individual therapy session documents. You can also use prescription records for all of the anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications you take just to cope with daily life. To get these records, you will need to sign legal release forms for your therapists and doctors so that your lawyer can begin to build a case around the reasons why you did what you did.

Using an Insanity Plea vs. Self-Defense

If you ask your lawyer to build a case on your psychiatric patient files, he or she may suggest that you go for an insanity plea. This may be difficult to prove, even given an extensive history, but it may lighten your sentence if you are found guilty. If your abuser was making threats, verbally assaulting you and creating a very hostile and frightening situation right before your abuser ended up dead, it may be possible to use self-defense as part of your argument as well, but generally that is reserved for obvious threats of physical harm. If there are no clear signs of physical harm, self-defense would be difficult to convince a judge and jury of, whereas the insanity plea might be more believable.

Accepting the Outcome When the Evidence and Defense Shows You Did the Crime

If the facts of a case show that you did indeed commit homicide, the why may not be important. That is why you should request a trial by jury, since a jury of your peers might have very different opinions of your level of innocence or guilt. Your lawyer may have an easier time convincing several jurors that you suffered abuse rather than trying to convince a judge. Contact a criminal defense attorney like Thomas A Corletta to advise you and help build your case if you've suffered years of physical and/or psychological abuse.


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