When your Bay Area DUI trial begins, each of the attorneys will have an opportunity to select the jury appropriate to hear your case fairly. Each attorney wil make an opening argument, in which we present the jury with our view of the facts as well as introduce the theme of your case. A case theme is extremely important in jury trials because a jury is a group of twelve people. People, especially groups of people, understand stories better than a complex gobbledygook of laws, facts, and legal-ese. Each case has its own theme, which we will work out together based on the facts of your case. It will be something identifiable, easy to remember, and something that the jurymembers will relate to on a personal and human level.
Next, each side will put on its case. This consists of:
- calling witnesses to the stand,
- entering evidence through testimony and the introduction by witnesses of documentary or physical evidence
- and attempting to either prove or disprove facts related to the law in question.
As your defense attorney, I will be objecting to improper evidence, improper questions, unqualified witnesses, or any other improprieties. Unless we have any contradictory evidence in your case, it may not be necessary to call any witnesses on your side. Because the D.A. has the burden of proof, my job is to keep them from scoring. If they don't score enough points, they can't win. You go in with the cards stacked in your favor.
If the D.A. manages to present sufficient facts, then we may need to call expert witnesses, eyewitnesses, or present other evidence specific to your case which contradicts and undermines the D.A.'s version of the event, or the science behind the D.A.'s connection between the evidence and your guilt of a crime.
The two most common defenses, which can each occur in a variety of ways, are:
1. IMPROPER PROSECUTION OF YOUR CASE
When the arresting officer, a lab technician, the D.A., or any other person acting as a government official fails to follow procedural guidelines in your criminal DUI case, you can have it thrown out most of the time. Your United States and California Constitutional rights afford you an enormous amount of protection of your liberty. Therefore, before the goverment can convict you of a crime, they have to prove you guilty, and they can't cut any corners doing it. There are numerous possible due process violations that can occur in each stage of a criminal prosecution, and what I do is go over your case with a fine-toothed comb looking for them. This can happen before or during your arrest or before or during your trial.
2. NOT ENOUGH EVIDENCE TO CONVICT YOU
Even if a DUI prosecution is done by-the-books, it is ultimately up to the fact finder to decide whether the district attorney has brought enough convincing evidence to prove all of the elements of the crime with which you have been charged and done so "beyond a reasonable doubt." If the D.A. calls witnesses who testify to facts that could convict you, we will challenge the credibility of those witnesses. If the D.A. presents supposedly "scientific" evidence of your guilt, then we will challenge that science.
BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT
A talented trial lawyer knows how to communicate with a jury and explain to them exactly what "beyond a reasonable doubt" means. A lot of times, trial lawyers will attempt to define these "standards of proof", as we call them, with numerical figures. If you are 90% sure a person is guilty, is that "beyond a reasonable doubt?" If we used that margin of error in traffic light timers, there would be in excess of 15,000 accidents a day in a city like San Francisco. What about 95% certainty? That sounds pretty sure, doesn't it? "I'm 95% sure that Google stock is going to double in the next 5 years." Probably a safe investment, right? Well, if hospitals used this as an acceptable margin of error in the delivery room, then 55 babies would go home with the wrong parents nationwide, EVERY DAY. These are real statistics. Before you think 95% certainly is a safe bet, think about how inaccurate that percentage can really be.
So what percentage of proof do we need to convict a fellow Bay Area citizen of a horrendous charge like DUI or drunk driving beyond a reasonable doubt? Don't we know that the margin of error contained inherently in the breathalyzer machine is too risky? Don;t we know that every person's biochemistry is different, and that there are dozens of reasons for false positives, such as inhaling paint fumes earlier in the day or chewing gum before the officer approached your car?
We know we don't need 100% certainty to be beyond a "reasonable doubt", but we do know that the figure needs to be AS CLOSE TO 100% certain as possible, to prevent taking away the liberty of innocent people. Don't we need 99.9% certainty? How much of a doubt is reasonable? That's a question a Bay Area jury will have to answer in your DUI case. Please click the links above or below to learn more.