CRIMINAL DEFENSE OF ADULTS AND JUVENILES - Private Hire and JAC Appointed
"Hard evidence, rather than abstract legal argument, is what decides most criminal cases. You must be fully in command of the facts in order to be fully in command of the case. Do not let the prosecutor surprise you by any of its evidence." - F. Lee Bailey
Austen & Watson uncovers the "reasonable doubt" a jury must weigh to acquit. It UNCOVERS, but DOES NOT CREATE, that reasonable doubt.
- Do you feel you have been railroaded into a nightmare that might end in prison?
- Do you feel wrongly accused in a criminal justice system and maybe even a social media frenzy that wrongly presumes you are guilty until proven innocent
- Have social media and the media itself picked up only on the police side of the story and you are losing family, friends and maybe your career or business? Is jail time looming?
- In America, everyone deserves a fair trial and that includes not just strong and fair legal representation, but independent investigation that takes a hard look at the case built against you and the evidence, including witnesses law enforcement questioned and just maybe the ones it did not. Timelines can show inconsistencies, gaps, even false narratives. New interviews or other evidence can reveal lies and impeach star witnesses.
- The worst miscarriage of justice that our forefathers foresaw from the experience of English courts and tried to prevent in the U.S. Constitution was the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime he or she did not commit.
INNOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY
When writing the Constitution, our Founding Fathers were acutely aware of the wrongs in the English judicial system and the "Star Chamber" that convicted the innocent. To prevent that in their New Republic, the Founding Fathers wrote protections into the Constitution, including rights to due process in the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments stating: That no state may deprive "any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law."
The Constitution laid the guardrails of INNCOCENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY. But in an age of social media and media fueled rage, the accused often feel they are: GUILTY UNTIL PROVED INNOCENT.
FACTS FIRST
Start with the whole case against you from the police reports and witness statements. But then dig deep to look for contradictions and inconsistencies that blow up cases.
Build computer databases timelines. Find new physical evidence and locate new witnesses or find new evidence to discredit Star Witness testimony.
Finding discrepancies and inconsistencies in witness statements can unravel lies a jury can see.
CAREFUL ANALYSIS
Analysis begins with building that timeline of events. That timeline is built starting with the case against you: from police reports, witness statements and any physical evidence.
Add to that an investigator's new fact pattern from more witness statements, hospital reports, temporal reports like the weather the hour of the crime, cell tower info and more. New evidence can turn the case on its head.
IMPEACH FALSE WITNESSES/EVIDENCE
We hope Star Witnesses tell the truth no matter what side of the case.
But Star Witnesses can have faulty memories or even outright lies. What are their probable motivations that can be proved by insightful investigation.
Austen & Watson will find the fact patterrn that gives you attorney the ammunition needed to build
Criminal Defense Victims and Witnesses Don't Always tell the Truth. Unfortunately.
Of course , crime victims and witnesses need to be heard and believed.
That is, until there are inconsistencies, gaps, new versions of stories told or statements that contradict other pieces of physical evidence, witness statements or other fact-based research.
That's why it's essential to really deep background the victim and even other witnesses.
Austen & Watson does deep dives that arms your attorney with facts to show a jury that the witness on the stand is not telling the truth.
What are the main reasons that innocent people are found guilty?
- Eyewitness Misidentification - The Innocence Project, which has overturned more than 350 murder cases in its 25 years, notes misidentification of the suspect played a key factor in 70% of those cases.
- Coerced or False Confessions or Admissions
- Incorrect Expert Witness Testimony or Faulty/Misused Forensics
- Informants or Snitches who want something.
- Just, plain old, bad lawyering
"Sometimes prosecutors can twist (informants/witnesses/co-defendants) not only into singing, but into composing, into making something up against somebody. They're so desperate to make a deal. If you can get yourself out of trouble by turning somebody else in, a lawyer is going to help you try to do that." - Alan Dershowitz
Why do I need a private investigator if I have a defense attorney?
The job of the private investigator is not to solve the case but to analyze the prosecutor's case against you for inconsistencies, gaps, untruths and even new witnesses and new evidence. We give your defense attorney command of the facts so that he or she can make the best legal case.