Minneapolis Criminal Defense Lawyer
Drug charges are tricky business. They have the tendency to pop up in your life when you least expect them. It could be police kicking in your door for a low-end distribution bust or even something as commonplace as a traffic stop can turn into a drug arrest if they find narcotics in your car. If this arrest is allowed to progress to a conviction, it means financially painful fines, jail time, and a criminal record that severely limits future possibilities. If you have been arrested on drug charges, then you need to be proactive in your defense with your lawyer.
How to Suppress Drug Evidence
One of the best defensive strategies to a drug crime arrest is to completely negate the crime by suppressing the evidence. In drug crimes, the key piece of evidence that often makes the case for the prosecution is the narcotics. While not always the linchpin of every case, if you can suppress that evidence, the case will have no legs to stand on and it will likely be dropped. A dropped case means no punishments, which is obviously an outcome that anyone who is arrested wants.
Unfortunately, while suppressing crucial evidence is effective, it is not applicable in every drug arrest case. In order to suppress evidence, there are several routes that your criminal defense attorney can look into. The first is to prove that the drugs or paraphernalia was found during an illegal search and thus illegally seized by law enforcement.
Illegal searches happen when police followed through on a search without a warrant or probable cause to do so. However, there are a number of small loopholes that can be used to support law enforcement in terms of the legality of searches, with probable cause being primary among them. For example, you may think law enforcement entering your home without a warrant is an illegal search, but the officer could claim they heard someone screaming inside, which gives them probable cause to enter. As a person screaming makes them think someone is in danger, probable cause allows them to enter. This is just one example of the many small loopholes that can be called probable cause. However, if probable cause can be unraveled, it can allow the search and thus any evidence turned up during that search to be void.
Another way to suppress evidence is to prove that the chain of custody for that evidence wasn’t followed. In order to prevent detrimental evidence tampering, law enforcement must be able to prove to the court an ironclad chain of custody. They need to show that the evidence was collected, transported, and then stored in a way that is clearly defined by the law and preventative of any contamination. You would think that after thousands of drug cases, law enforcement would not make any mistakes in this regard, but it actually happens quite frequently. All it takes is one tired veteran trying to speed up the process or a rookie that forgot their training, and the evidence can be suppressed because of a singular flaw in the chain of custody.
While the above are the most common and often the most effective ways to suppress drug evidence, there are many avenues your criminal defense attorney can pursue to suppress evidence and otherwise try to get you the best possible outcome for your criminal case.
Arrested For Drug Crimes In Minnesota? Call Judith Samson Today
If you have been arrested for drug charges in the Minneapolis area and need someone to come to your stalwart defense, contact us today. Judith Samson is dedicated to helping those arrested on drug charges escape the harsh and unfair punishments that often accompany them.
Disclaimer: The information you obtain at this site is not, nor is it intended to be, legal advice. You should consult an attorney for advice regarding your individual situation. We invite you to contact us and welcome your calls, letters and electronic mail. Contacting us does not create an attorney-client relationship. Please do not send any confidential information to us until such time as an attorney-client relationship has been established.
