Allegations of domestic violence can wreak havoc on your life. They can threaten you with incarceration, but they can also have an impact on other areas of your life, such as your ability to find and keep a job as well as maintain meaningful contact with your children.
Yet, all too often the prosecution bases its case on the alleged victim’s statements. But what if that alleged victim and other prosecution witnesses are simply lying or misconstruing the facts?
Attacking witness credibility
Fortunately, our legal system gives you the opportunity to cross-examine these witnesses, which gives you the opportunity to draw their credibility and thus the reliability of their testimony into question. Here are a few ways to go about doing that:
- Show that the witness is biased against you for some reason, such as by having a bad relationship that pre-existed in the incident in question.
- Demonstrate that the witness is motivated to testify against you for some reason.
- Highlight that the witness has made inconsistent statements regarding the facts, which you might be able to draw from depositional testimony or a police report.
- Use the witness’s criminal history to show that they have a history of acting in a way that violates truthfulness and thus reliability.
There may be other ways to attack witness credibility in your case. Just be sure you’re carefully analyzing the witnesses so that you can develop a strategy that works for you.
Be holistic in creating your criminal defense
There’s a lot that goes into a strong criminal defense, with witness credibility serving as just one piece of the puzzle. Therefore, if you’ve been accused of criminal wrongdoing, then we encourage you to explore every aspect of your criminal defense strategy to ensure that you’re putting your best foot forward and aggressively fighting to protect your future.