Entrapment makes for a great defense when someone was threatened or harassed by the authorities to commit drug crimes.
A lot of people are arrested for drug possession every year. Only in 2019, 1.5 million individuals were arrested for drug offenses, with 9 in 10 arrests being made for drug possession. If you are ever in this situation, you should know how to build a strong defense.
The good news is that there are different things you can do to have a strong and winning case. One of them is looking for drug crimes lawyers and hiring the best attorney to defend you. At the same time, you can use the following tips to work on your defense:
- Get a Crime Lab Analysis
Sometimes, the substances taken away by the police may look like drugs, but in reality, are not drugs. Just because something resembles cocaine, it doesn’t mean that it is cocaine. When the police confiscate substances that are not drugs, you might feel relieved thinking that the test will come out negative.
But what if the tests come back with positive results for illegal drugs?
In some cases, the substance may end up getting lost in the custody chain. Therefore, the prosecution may submit the wrong evidence to the laboratory by mistake.
You can have your attorney ask about the number of positive results that they get every year that are actually false. Another thing you may need is proprietary information regarding the way the machines operate.
The crime lab may not want to give you proprietary information, but your defense’s optics will look more promising.
- Prove the Drugs Were Not Yours
You have definitely heard about the “They weren’t my drugs” defense. Well, while it is used by many people, it is a quite good legal defense strategy – at least as long as you can prove that the drugs were not yours.
Being convicted on a drug possession charge does not necessarily require the police to find drugs in your possession directly or on your body. They only need to prove that you either had access to the substance or control of it.
If you hire a good defense lawyer, they will pressure the prosecutor to prove that the substance was not in your possession. The drugs may have been found inside a car where more than one person was present or in a shared apartment. If one of these situations or a similar one applies to you, then you could make the argument that the drugs belonged to someone else.
Of course, with this defense being so common, it can be very hard to prove. Your lawyer will know whether this is the best strategy to opt for, so talk to them before going this route.
- Prove Police Misconduct or Fabricated Evidence
A drug possession charge rarely ends up proving that the police officers fabricated the evidence to set up the accused. But this type of scenario does not only happen in movies. Sometimes, the police break the law, and the officers fabricate evidence so they can justify arresting someone.
The good news is that your charges could be dismissed if an officer fabricated evidence to have a reason to arrest you or acted inappropriately in any way. The officer will be investigated if you make this allegation, and if any proof is discovered, your charges will be dropped.
Some cases of police misconduct could include:
- the officer lying about witnessing any traffic offense to pull someone over
- the officer lying about getting a warrant to search the car or home of an individual
- the officer planting the drug in someone’s home or car
- Entrapment Situation
People working in law enforcement can set up sting operations. However, there is a special situation known as entrapment. This is when police officers or informants make a suspect commit a crime he/she wouldn’t have normally committed.
Entrapment makes for a great defense when someone was threatened or harassed by the authorities to commit drug crimes. If this is your case, present the situation to your lawyer and they will give you the best advice and will know the best approach to take.
The Bottom Line
Defending yourself against a drug possession charge can be very tricky. However, if you hire a skilled lawyer who knows how to build your defense, then you will be able to get out of this situation. For example, the attorney may find some holes in the case of the prosecutor. Therefore, do your research so that you can find the best lawyer for your case.
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