When a Mistake Becomes a Criminal Case
A lot of what we deal with in criminal defense starts with a mistake. In my experience, the majority of my clients are good people. They have families, careers, responsibilities, and people who depend on them. They aren’t people who wake up in the morning planning to commit a crime. More often, they made a bad decision, reacted poorly in a difficult situation, or did something they wished they could take back. Unfortunately, making a mistake doesn’t mean there can’t be criminal consequences. My job isn’t to judge someone based on one bad decision. My job is to understand what happened, understand who that person is, and figure out the best outcome we can get for them.
That comes up frequently in cases involving violent offenses. A person may tell me that he never intended for someone to get hurt. In a self-defense case, he may fully admit what he did but believe he had no other choice at the time. Those facts can be extremely important, but they don’t necessarily end the legal analysis. What someone ultimately intended to happen and what the criminal law says about the conduct that led to that result can be two different things.
This is where intent and the other mental states we deal with in criminal law become important. Lawyers use the term mens rea to describe the mental state associated with committing an offense. Depending on the particular crime, the law may be concerned with whether someone’s conduct was intentional, knowing, reckless, or criminally negligent. So when a client tells me, “I didn’t mean for this to happen,” my next question isn’t simply whether I believe him. I need to understand exactly what he did intend to do and how the law applies to that conduct.
Take a violent offense as an example. A person may tell me, “I fired the gun, but I didn’t intend to shoot him.” Maybe that’s true. But then we have to deal with everything that comes with that answer. Why did he fire the gun? Where was it pointed? What was happening at the time? Was he defending himself or somebody else? What did he say immediately afterward? What does the physical evidence show? The fact that he didn’t intend the ultimate result may be very important, but it doesn’t necessarily mean there are no criminal consequences.
Intent also creates some unique problems in a criminal case because we can’t get inside somebody’s head and know exactly what he was thinking. Ultimately, that can become an issue for a jury. And when you’re asking a jury to decide what someone intended, you’re often dealing with credibility as much as anything else.
That’s one reason I want to know very early whether my client gave a statement. If he did, I want the actual statement, not just somebody else’s summary of it. Did he admit the act? Did he explain why he did it? Did he say something that supports self-defense? Did he say something that creates another problem? If the case eventually goes to trial, we also have to think seriously about whether the client testifies. When someone’s state of mind is central to the case, how you present that issue to a jury can become extremely important.
Another area where this comes up is when more than one person is involved in a crime. I recently represented a client charged with capital murder whose alleged role was allowing the alleged triggerman to spend the night at his home the night of the killing. He wasn’t alleged to be the person who actually killed anyone, or even to have been there at the time of the shooting. The issue became what he knew about the shooting and what he was trying to do, or not do, at the time he allowed this person to stay at his house. Clearly, he never had any intent to kill someone. But that doesn’t automatically end the analysis. Depending on the facts, you may have to consider accomplice liability, felony murder, intentional murder, and what the evidence actually establishes about what that particular person knew and intended, and what happened after the alleged triggerman left his house. Who did the client talk to? What did he say? Did he lie?
Clients understandably tend to look at these situations differently. Someone may tell me, “I didn’t do it; I was just there,” or “I didn’t think anybody was going to get hurt.” Those facts may ultimately be very important to the defense. But part of my job is explaining that we have to look beyond the ultimate result. What did you agree to do? What did you know? What did you actually do? And what can the State prove?
The same is true when somebody tells me something was simply a mistake. There can still be intentional conduct that leads to an unintended result. Someone may intentionally do one thing without intending the consequence that follows. Depending on the circumstances, that can create questions about recklessness or even extreme indifference to human life. The fact that someone never wanted the ultimate result to happen matters, but it doesn’t necessarily mean the law considers the conduct accidental.
This is also why I think it’s important not to define a person by the fact that he or she has been charged with a crime. I’ve represented a lot of good people who made an unfortunate decision or found themselves in a situation they never expected to be in. Sometimes there is a strong legal defense. Sometimes the evidence shows that the client did make a mistake, and the focus needs to be on what we can do to minimize the consequences of it. Those are very different cases, but the job is ultimately the same.
I want to understand the person I’m representing, what actually happened, what the State can prove, and how the law applies. Then I can start figuring out the best way to help.
A mistake can have serious consequences. It doesn’t have to define the rest of someone’s life.
Brett H. Knight is a partner at Jaffe, Hanle, Whisonant & Knight, P.C. His practice includes criminal defense in Alabama state and federal courts.
This article is provided for general informational purposes only and is not legal advice. Every criminal case is different, and past results do not guarantee a particular outcome.
For more information, contact an experienced Birmingham criminal defense attorney at Jaffe, Hanle, Whisonant & Knight, P.C. for a free consultation.
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Jaffe, Hanle, Whisonant & Knight, P.C.
2320 Arlington Ave S, Suite 100, Birmingham, AL 35205
(205) 930-9800