When you’re facing criminal charges, you have to do everything possible to protect yourself. After all, the prosecution is going to be unrelenting in its pursuit of conviction, which can leave you feeling backed into a corner.
Fortunately, there are criminal defense tactics that you can utilize to stabilize your position and generate evidence needed to protect your freedom and your future. One of them involves the deposition.
What is a deposition?
A deposition is the process of taking sworn testimony from a witness outside of court and prior to trial. The parties are provided with a transcript. You can ask questions of these witnesses like you would at trial, and, while some questions may be objected to, the witness is generally required to answer all questions asked.
How a deposition can help your criminal defense
There are several benefits to depositions. They include:
- Pinning witnesses down on their story so that you can hold them to it at trial.
- Highlighting inconsistent statements that witnesses make, which you can use to attack the credibility and reliability of their testimony.
- Providing insight into matters that you previously didn’t know.
- Giving you key admissions that you can use to attack the foundation of the prosecution’s case.
Although depositions can require a lot of work upfront in your case, they can be pivotal in controlling the direction and outcome of your legal arguments.
Utilize the criminal defense tools available to you
Your freedom and your future are on the line in your criminal case. Therefore, you need to fully use the tools available to you so that you can aggressively fight back against the prosecution and avoid the harsh penalties that are being threatened against you.