In Louisiana, sexual battery is a crime defined as unwanted or unconsented sexual touching of another, or coercing the victim into touching the accused in a sexual manner. Criminal elements of sexual battery in Louisiana are the same as the criminal elements of rape, except that the sexual behavior falls short of oral, anal, or vaginal sex, which all involve some form of penetration (however minor). If you are arrested and charged with sexual battery, contact an experienced Shreveport criminal defense attorney at the Law Offices of Philip B. Adams.
Sexual touching generally involves the touching of commonly understood erogenous zones, including the genitals, buttocks, and breasts. Generally, the touching of these erogenous zones must be related to some sexual desire. Legally, this is often called touching for the purposes of "prurient arousal." This is one reason that doctors and medical professionals commit no crime when giving medical examinations. They are touching for purpose of examination and not arousal. From an allegation of sexual battery, there are two potential criminal defenses: the alleged touching did not involve an erogenous zone, and/or it was not aimed at prurient arousal. Sexual battery is a crime of intent. Thus, if charged, the Louisiana prosecuting attorneys must prove -- beyond a reasonable doubt -- that the sexual touching was done with intent. Thus, an accidental touching of erogenous areas will not be a crime. From this, we can see another possible criminal defense: the touching was accidental and/or inadvertent. The next criminal element of Louisiana sexual battery is lack of consent. That is, to obtain a conviction, the Louisiana prosecutors must prove that the victim did not consent to the sexual touching. Thus, consensual sexual touching is a potential criminal defense to charges of sexual battery. However, consent is NOT always a defense since some victims are too young to consent to sexual activity and touching. Thus, there is the concept of statutory sexual battery -- sexual touching of a person under the age of 17. Louisiana criminal law presumes that those under the age of 17 cannot give consent to sexual behavior. Note that statutory crimes are strict liability in the sense that an accused's belief that the victim was "of age" will not be a criminal defense. Lack of consent also involves various types of circumstances where consent cannot be given for physical and/or mental reasons. These include cases where the victim is mentally or physically incapacitated, such as where the victim has taken drugs, has been drugged, has drunk too much alcohol, is unconscious, etc. These also include cases where the victim lacks sufficient intelligence -- has clinical mental retardation, for example -- to understand the nature and meaning of sexual behavior. Lack of consent also involves cases where the victim cannot physically resist because the victim is paraplegic, quadriplegic, or otherwise physically incapable of resisting. Finally, lack of consent also involves various types of circumstances where consent is "given" under threatened or actual use of force, violence, or the withholding of food/water or under other types of threats. The latter can occur, for example, in elder abuse cases in nursing home care facilities. If the victim has been intimidated, there is no consent to sexual touching or fondling. Other potential defenses include innocence. This might involve an alibi defense, a victim misidentification, etc. There may also be criminal defenses based on violation of Constitutional protections, law enforcement failures concerning legal procedures, and, maybe, failures related to evidence such as faulty lab test results. Contact A Louisiana Criminal Defense Attorney Today For more information, contact the Law Offices of Philip B. Adams today. We are relentless and aggressive Louisiana criminal defense lawyers. Complete our "Contact Us" page here. You may significantly benefit by having an attorney with legal competence and experience assist you with your Louisiana criminal case. We have offices in Shreveport and handle criminal defense cases throughout all of Louisiana. In Louisiana, the victim of any auto accident that causes injury or property damage has the right to make an insurance claim and/or file personal injury litigation. Any settlement or judgment is compensation for injuries and damages. The parties responsible for the injuries and damages will be held legally liable. Compensation can be recovered for many types and categories of damages, including:
In addition, where a drunk driver is responsible for the Louisiana auto accident (and the resulting injuries and damages), then victims may ALSO seek punitive damages to punish the at-fault party. This is allowed under Louisiana Civil Code, Art. 2315.4, which states "In addition to general and special damages, exemplary damages may be awarded upon proof that the injuries on which the action is based were caused by a wanton or reckless disregard for the rights and safety of others by a defendant whose intoxication while operating a motor vehicle was a cause in fact of the resulting injuries." Note that, according to several Louisiana court decisions, generally, insurance carriers are responsible for paying any punitive damages that can be proven. How to prove intoxication In most cases of drunk drivers causing Louisiana car accidents, the proof of intoxication is accomplished by showing the driver's blood alcohol level. Generally, this can be provided because, in most cases, the driver was arrested and tested by the police. However, that is not the only method of proving intoxication. For example, if the drunk driver flees the scene of the accident, then the driver will not be arrested or tested. Courts have allowed other evidence of intoxication to be used. These include testimony and other evidence that the driver
How much punitive damages can I recover? Louisiana courts have generally approved awards of punitive damages at an amount basically equal to the proven damages. Thus, in the case of Lacoste v. Crochet, 751 So. 2d 998 - La: Court of Appeals, 4th Circuit 2000), the proven damages for all victims was $33,000, and the court approved punitive damages in the amount of $30,000. Act quickly to contact a Louisiana personal injury attorney If you have been injured in an auto accident in Louisiana involving a drunk driver, you should consider acting quickly to consult with an experienced Louisiana personal injury attorney. In Louisiana, you generally must file a personal injury lawsuit within one year of the date of the accident. Contact A Louisiana Personal Injury Attorney Today For more information, contact the Law Offices of Philip B. Adams. If you have been injured in a Louisiana accident, our Louisiana personal injury lawyers can help you recover the full compensation you are entitled to according to Louisiana law. To contact us, complete our "Contact Us" page here. You may significantly benefit by having an attorney with legal competence and experience assist you with your Louisiana personal injury case. We have offices in Shreveport and handle personal injury cases throughout all of Louisiana. Thank you for reading this blog and visiting our website. In Louisiana, there are four main arson charges: aggravated, intent to injure, simple, and arson with the intent to defraud. All four crimes involve the intentional burning of a building or other property (like a car or boat). Arson involves the purposeful creation of fires using flame and acceleration and/or the use of explosives. Criminal penalties will depend on the intent proven, the extent of damage caused, whether persons were endangered and/or threatened with harm, and whether harm or death occurred. In terms of intent, there can be several possible intents. Was the intent to destroy property, intent to harm another human being, intent to defraud, intent to commit some other crime where a fire started, etc.? If you are arrested and charged with arson, contact an experienced Shreveport criminal defense attorney at the Law Offices of Philip B. Adams. Below is a discussion of the main arson crimes in Louisiana.
Aggravated arson -- La. Rev. Stat, §14.51 Aggravated arson is the most serious of the arson criminal charges. The criminal elements that must be proven by the Louisiana government prosecutors for aggravated arson are
If convicted, the criminal defendant will face a sentence of incarceration at hard labor from six to twenty years and a fine of up to $25,000. Injury by arson -- La. Rev. Stat, §14.51.1 For the crime of injury by arson, the criminal elements that must be proven by the Louisiana government prosecutors are
If convicted, the criminal defendant will face a sentence of incarceration at hard labor from six to twenty years and a fine of up to $25,000. Simple arson -- La. Rev. Stat, §14.52 Simple arson can be proven in two ways. The first method involves proving the following elements:
Or:
If convicted, the criminal defendant will face a sentence of incarceration at hard labor for up to fifteen years and a fine of up to $15,000 if the value of the property destroyed is more than $500. If the property destroyed has a value of less than $500, then the person convicted faces up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $2,500. Arson with intent to defraud -- La. Rev. Stat, §14.52 The elements are:
If convicted, the criminal defendant will face a sentence of incarceration for up to five years and a fine of up to $10,000 Contact A Louisiana Criminal Defense Attorney Today For more information, contact the Law Offices of Philip B. Adams today. We are relentless and aggressive Louisiana criminal defense lawyers. Complete our "Contact Us" page here. You may significantly benefit by having an attorney with legal competence and experience assist you with your Louisiana criminal case. We have offices in Shreveport and handle criminal defense cases throughout all of Louisiana. How Does Louisiana's Comparative Fault Doctrine Impact My Shreveport Auto Accident Claim?10/16/2023
In Shreveport auto accidents, "comparative fault" means that all parties who are at fault (in some way) will pay their percentage share of the damages. This applies to the injured victims, too. For example, assume a hypothetical accident where a big rig 18-wheeler truck is speeding towards an intersection to "make the light," but the light turns red just before the tractor-trailer truck gets to the intersection. The truck does not stop. Meanwhile, a passenger car has been waiting to turn left. Believing that the truck would stop, the driver of the automobile starts the left turn as the light turns red. The result is a horrific accident in the middle of the intersection. Now, obviously, the driver of the tractor-trailer truck is at fault for running the red light and for speeding. However, the injured victim in the passenger car bears some responsibility for not waiting and yielding to oncoming traffic (even if that oncoming traffic should have stopped). Louisiana is a "comparative negligence" state, which, as noted, means that all the at-fault parties pay their percentage share of the total damages. The assignment of percentage fault is made by a jury or a judge if the matter goes to civil trial, and if the victim is assigned a percentage of fault, then the victim's money damages are reduced by that amount. See LA Civ. Code, Art. 2323(A). So, in our example, the assignment might be 95% fault to the truck driver and 5% fault to the victim in the passenger car. In that case, if the damages are $500,000, then the victim's actual recovery will be $450,000. For a real-world example, see the case of Pontchartrain Nat. Gas System v. Texas Brine Company, LLC., 361 So.3d 491 (LA. Court of Appeals, 1st Cir. 2023). That case involved who was responsible for a giant sinkhole that formed in Assumption Parish in an area known as the Napoleonville Salt Dome. Various companies were assigned the following percentages of fault: 40% to Occidental; 5% each to Occidental Petroleum Corporation and OXY USA, Inc.; 25% to Texas Brine; 10% to United Brine Services Company, LLC; and 15% to Legacy Vulcan. Note that the assignment of percentage fault can be appealed if any party believes that the assignment was in error. This was successfully done in the Pontchartrain case. On appeal, the Louisiana Appeals Court reassigned the percentages as follows: 30% to Occidental; 0% each to Occidental Petroleum Corporation and OXY USA, Inc.; 45% to Texas Brine; 10% to United Brine Services Company, LLC; and 15% to Legacy Vulcan. In any event, Louisiana's comparative fault rules will potentially impact your Shreveport auto accident claim in two major ways. First, since your actual "in-your-pocket" recovery will be reduced by any percentage fault assigned to you, the insurance carriers involved will likely work hard to find some reason that you were partly at fault for the accident. This is because insurance companies have a financial incentive to pay as little as they can for any accident covered by their insurance. So their agents and employees make the best case they can that the victim had some responsibility for the accident. But remember that the insurance company representatives are just making arguments. Only a Louisiana court can make legally binding decisions about assigning fault. The second major impact potentially happens if there is no settlement with the insurance carriers. As noted, if a judge or jury assigns some percentage fault to you, the victim, then your total money damage recovery will be reduced. Contact A Louisiana Personal Injury Attorney Today For more information, contact the Law Offices of Philip B. Adams. If you have been injured in a Louisiana accident, our Louisiana personal injury lawyers can help you recover the full compensation you are entitled to according to Louisiana law. To contact us, complete our "Contact Us" page here. You may significantly benefit by having an attorney with legal competence and experience assist you with your Louisiana personal injury case. We have offices in Shreveport and handle personal injury cases throughout all of Louisiana. Thank you for reading this blog post and visiting our website. Drug trafficking is a severe crime in Louisiana that can lead to imprisonment at hard labor for 2-30 years, along with fines that can be as high as $150,000. This includes the trafficking of marijuana, which has largely been decriminalized for possession and recreational use. Note that marijuana use and possession are still serious crimes at the federal level. The key difference between use/possession and trafficking is the quantity of the drugs involved and what is being done with those drugs. If you are found by the police in possession of small quantities, this will generally lead to charges involving use/possession. Larger quantities may lead to charges of trafficking since individuals generally don't consume large amounts of marijuana for personal use. Trafficking is also commonly called "intent to distribute." The same trafficking laws may be used regardless of the drugs involved. As noted, you can be charged with trafficking in marijuana as well as many other controlled substances such as cocaine, heroine, "meth," various types of steroids, LSD, ecstasy, etc.
In terms of proof, the old Louisiana laws have been strengthened, so the prosecution now has only two legal elements to prove: possession of certain quantities of the controlled substance and intent to distribute. In other words, the prosecution does NOT have to prove that you exchanged a bag or container of drugs for money. To prove possession, generally, the Louisiana prosecuting attorneys need only prove physical possession. For example, if you are stopped, and the police find a sufficient quantity of controlled substances in your pockets, that fact alone, absent extenuating circumstances, is likely sufficient proof of the first element. However, constructive possession can also be proven. For example, if the police "raid" your house, and there is a large quantity of drugs on your dining room table, that fact may be deemed, at least, constructive possession. Proof of intent to distribute can be shown with many types of evidence. These might include
With respect to drug trafficking, some criminal defenses are rarely useful or applicable to the facts. These include common Louisiana criminal defenses like alibi, misidentification/wrong person, self-defense, defense of others, incapacity, etc. More common to drug trafficking cases are constitutional rights-related defenses, procedural defenses, evidentiary challenges, and directly attacking the sufficiency of the evidence (particularly concerning the alleged evidence of intent). For example, if the drugs were discovered during a traffic stop, an argument can be raised about the lawfulness of the stop and subsequent search. If the drugs were discovered after a "stop and frisk," was the stop lawful and, just as important, was the "frisk" lawful? If the drugs were discovered after a "raid," the question arises whether the "raid" was lawful. If a warrant was issued for the "raid," was the warrant properly issued? Depending on the facts, there may be other constitutional challenges. Procedurally, there may be challenges to the chain of custody, lab reports, etc. These will "go to" the validity of the evidence of the drugs themselves. Contact A Louisiana Criminal Defense Attorney Today For more information, contact the Law Offices of Philip B. Adams today. We are relentless and aggressive Louisiana criminal defense lawyers. Complete our "Contact Us" page here. You may significantly benefit by having an attorney with legal competence and experience assist you with your Louisiana criminal case. We have offices in Shreveport and handle criminal defense cases throughout all of Louisiana. Embezzlement in Shreveport, Louisiana, is a form of theft and is punished as theft in Louisiana. Embezzlement is a crime under both Louisiana criminal law and under federal law. In Louisiana, the severity of the crime (and the punishments) depends on how much money has been embezzled. The punishments are the following under Louisiana law:
Under federal criminal law, embezzlement of amounts higher than $1,000 can result in up to 10 years in a federal prison. For federal crimes, usually, some element of interstate commerce or cross-state-border activity must be involved. An example would be embezzling money from a bank or company engaged in interstate commerce. If you have been charged with embezzlement in Louisiana, contact an experienced Shreveport white-collar criminal defense attorney now. As noted, embezzlement is a form of theft. However, embezzlement involves circumstances in which the money was entrusted to the person who ultimately engaged in the theft (i.e., the person was allowed or authorized to possess the money but then took the money without authorization and with the intent to permanently deprive the owner of the money). As a simple example, imagine you give your friend $40 in cash to go to the pharmacy to buy medication or pick up a prescription. No crime has been committed. Your friend is authorized to have your $40; that money has been entrusted. However, if your friend absconds or flees with the money, never buys your medication, and never returns your money, then your friend has committed the crime of embezzlement. Real-world embezzlement cases are never so simple. Embezzlement cases are always very complex, difficult, and time-consuming for the government prosecuting attorneys to prove. This complexity is why hiring a Shreveport white-collar criminal defense attorney may help you in defending against the charges. As mentioned above, the prosecutors must prove that the money was actually taken. In most cases, that is not easy to do. This will generally require a high-level expert witness with deep experience in forensic accounting. Further, it must be proven that the money was taken without authority -- explicit or implied authority. By extension, it must be shown that there was an intent to take the money. That is, the evidence must refute the possibility that the money was taken by inadvertence, accident, or mistake. Finally, it must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the money was taken with the intent to permanently deprive the rightful owner of the money. There are, of course, other potential defenses that a Louisiana white-collar criminal defense attorney might be able to explore. In white-collar criminal cases, one important question is how did the government come into possession of the alleged evidence? Was the evidence collected in violation of the defendant's constitutional rights? Contact A Louisiana White Collar Criminal Defense Attorney Today For more information, contact the Law Offices of Philip B. Adams today. We are relentless and aggressive Louisiana white-collar criminal defense lawyers. Complete our "Contact Us" page here. While no results are guaranteed, you may significantly benefit by having an attorney with legal competence and experience assist you with your Louisiana criminal case. We have offices in Shreveport and handle criminal defense cases throughout all of Louisiana. In Caddo Parish and other parts of Louisiana, you have a right to make a personal injury claim if you were injured. Even if only your car (or other property) was damaged, you still have the right to make a claim for compensation. Generally, the first step is to make a claim with the relevant insurance carriers. Eventually, it may be necessary to prosecute your auto accident claim through the filing of a personal injury lawsuit. To be sure,
Note that your claim is for compensation for your injuries and/or for the property damage that you suffered. Louisiana auto accident cases are not like "winning the lottery." You cannot just claim any amount and expect to be given a settlement check. Your settlement is proportionately based on the injuries suffered and on the extent of the damage to your vehicle and other property. You may recover for things like:
Further, if proven, family members may also have their own separate claims, including compensation for loss of support, loss of companionship, loss of consortium, and more. Note also that you have the right to make a claim under Louisiana law even if you had some fault in causing the Caddo Parish car accident. Louisiana is a "comparative negligence state," which means that legal liability is based on each party's percentage fault for the accident. If some amount of fault is assigned to the injured victim, then the amount of the settlement or award will be reduced by that percentage. For example, if the settlement/award is $1 million, but the victim is assigned 10% fault, then the ultimate settlement/award would be $900,000 to the victim assigned 10% fault. Importantly, the victim can still recover even if he or she is more than 50% at fault. To modify our hypothetical, if the victim were assigned 60% fault, then the ultimate settlement/award would be $400,000 to the victim assigned 60% fault. Louisiana is a "must-prove-negligence" State. This means that to succeed with your Shreveport, Louisiana, car injury claim, the injured party must prove that the other party was at fault. In Louisiana, this means proving the four elements of negligence, which are
Contact A Louisiana Personal Injury Attorney Today For more information, you are welcome to contact the Law Offices of Philip B. Adams if you have been injured in a Louisiana accident. Our Louisiana personal injury lawyer can help you with your personal injury claim for financial compensation. To contact us, conveniently schedule a consultation through our "Contact Us" page here. You may significantly benefit by having an attorney with legal competence and experience assist you with your Louisiana personal injury case. We have offices in Shreveport and handle personal injury cases throughout all of Louisiana. Thank you for reading this blog post and visiting our website. Yes. Under Louisiana law, defacing property with graffiti is a crime, and persons convicted can face jail time from 6 months to 10 years, depending on how much it costs to remove the graffiti. Fines can also be imposed of up to $10,000. See Louisiana Rev. Stat, § 14:56.4.
The crime is called "criminal damage to property by defacing with graffiti." The crime applies to any property, whether privately or publicly owned and to any immovable surface (like a wall) or to a movable surface (like a railway car). Do I Really Need a Lawyer if I am Charged with a Graffiti Crime? You may not "need" a lawyer, but you may certainly benefit from legal assistance and guidance. Criminal damage to property can be charged as a felony. As such, any conviction can be an enhancing conviction for any later conviction. Convictions also can be used to deny you employment, trade certifications, licensures, and rental housing. If you are underage, you probably also do not want your parents to be potentially liable for restitution costs. To learn more, you are welcome to call our Louisiana criminal defense attorney at the Law Offices of Philip B. Adams. How Can the Charges Be Defended? To obtain a conviction, the Louisiana prosecuting attorneys must prove beyond a reasonable doubt the following:
From this definition found in the statute, there may be several defenses depending on the facts of your case. For example, the statute defines "graffiti" as the following: "... any sign, inscription, design, drawing, diagram, etching, sketch, symbol, lettering, name, or marking placed upon immovable or movable property in such a manner and in such a location as to deface the property and be visible to the general public." So, one possible defense is that your signs, paintings, etc., were located in a place that was NOT visible to the "general public." As another example, the statute defines "deface" or "defacing" as "... the damaging of immovable or movable property by means of painting, marking, scratching, drawing, or etching with graffiti." So, if, for example, you used stickers or some other method not listed in the statute, then potentially, you cannot be convicted of "defacing" property (at least within the meaning of this criminal statute). Other potential legal defenses may include (again, depending on the facts) the following:
Other Potential Punishments Note that the statute allows the Louisiana criminal court to impose additional punishments beyond those listed above:
Contact A Louisiana Criminal Defense Attorney Today For more information, contact the Law Offices of Philip B. Adams today. We are relentless, meticulous, and passionate Louisiana criminal defense lawyers. Go to our "Contact Us" page here. We have offices in Shreveport and handle criminal defense cases throughout all of Louisiana. Louisiana 18-wheeler accidents tend to be more complicated than standard Louisiana auto accident cases. Thus, settling an eighteen-wheeler insurance claim can easily take anywhere from months to a couple of years.
Why? Louisiana big rig truck accidents tend to involve more severe, life-threatening, and dangerous injuries, so medical care and recovery can take many months and even years. A settlement often cannot be reached until all the medical bills are collected and tabulated. Further, as healing progresses, it may become clear that there will be future medical expenses because of long-term medical conditions and disabilities caused by the accident. It takes time to estimate precisely how long future medical care will be needed and the associated costs of that care. Also, there may be many parties who can be held legally liable under Louisiana law, including the driver, the driver's employer, the owner of the truck, the repair company that serviced and maintained the tractor-trailer truck, and even the manufacturer of the truck (if a design or manufacturing defect had some causal connection to the accident). It takes time to investigate the cause of the Louisiana 18-wheeler accident, to determine what happened, and to understand who or what caused the crash. Victims who are injured almost always do not want to obtain less money than they can. Thus, it is not advisable to "rush" a settlement since, under Louisiana negligence law, victims are entitled to full compensation for their injuries and any damage to property (like their vehicle and the vehicle's contents). Moreover, understand that once a settlement has been reached, there is no "going back for more." If victims "rush" to settle, there will be no additional settlement money if there are more medical procedures and expenses incurred after settlement. This issue is one reason that victims may benefit from consulting with experienced Louisiana personal injury lawyers who can help determine the cause of an accident and help locate all of the at-fault parties. In undertaking these tasks, your Louisiana 18-wheeler truck accident lawyers can increase your chances of obtaining a full recovery of compensation. Contact us today for a free, no-obligation consultation. As noted, the severity of the injuries and determining the full list of at-fault parties are two factors that determine how long it takes to settle a Louisiana 18-wheeler accident claim. Another reason why Louisiana big truck accident cases take more time is that truck companies tend to be aggressive when defending accident claims. With typical auto accident claims, the owner of the vehicle that caused the accident generally lets the insurance company handle the settlement negotiations. However, trucking companies take a much more active role and are not afraid to vigorously defend a personal injury lawsuit, especially when a lot of money may be on the line. Contact A Louisiana Personal Injury Attorney Today For more information, contact the Law Offices of Philip B. Adams. If you have been injured in a Louisiana accident, our Louisiana truck accident lawyer can help you recover the full compensation you are entitled to according to Louisiana law. To contact us, go to our "Contact Us" page here. You may significantly benefit by having an attorney with legal competence and experience assist you with your Louisiana personal injury case. We have offices in Shreveport and handle personal injury cases throughout all of Louisiana. Thank you for reading and visiting our website. If a person has been convicted of a crime here in Louisiana, the person has a right to appeal the conviction. This must be done within thirty (30) days immediately after the sentencing by the Louisiana criminal trial court. Appeals from a Louisiana criminal trial court go "up" to the Louisiana appellate courts. There are five such appellate courts covering various geographical districts.
Note that an appeal is not an opportunity to offer new or alternative evidence. An appellate court only reviews what happened at the trial level and basically only "reads" what happened based on the record created by the trial court. A convicted person can "win" their appeal by proving that legal mistakes were made at the trial level. Generally, "winning an appeal" gives the criminal defendant the right to a new trial. Typically, an appeal is only allowed after a full criminal court trial. That is, mostly, if the accused accepts a plea bargain and then pleads guilty as part of the deal, the plea bargain will generally include a waiver of the right to appeal. But there are some exceptions. Louisiana post-conviction appeals are legally complex and complicated. If you have been convicted and want to explore a possible appeal, contact a committed and experienced Shreveport criminal appellate attorney at the Law Offices of Philip B. Adams. To get a better understanding of how the appeal process works, let's look at an example from a recent case called State v. Scott, 360 So. 3d 92 (La: Court of Appeals, 5th Circuit 2023). In that case, the accused -- Osiris L. Scott -- was accused, accepted a plea bargain, and was sentenced for armed robbery and felon-in-possession of a gun. The specifics involved a carjacking with a gun, which, after the car was taken, also involved the use of credit cards contained in the victim's purse, which was in the car at the time of the carjacking. Scott's lawyer offered two primary criminal defenses at the trial level: improper identification from the victim and improper obtaining of incriminating statements from the defendant during the police interrogation. Let's examine the first criminal defense and how it led to the appeal. With respect to identifications, in Louisiana, to be convicted of a crime, the accused must be identified as the person who committed the alleged crime. This must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. Victims often provide identification. But most victim identifications of an alleged perpetrator involve some sort of options. A typical "police line-up" is an example, where usually five or more suspects of similar size and shape are presented to the victim. If the victim identifies the defendant, then that lineup may be deemed a proper identification that can be used at trial. Without options and alternatives, a victim or witness identification can be deemed "suggestive," and that can lead to the exclusion of the out-of-court identification from being used at trial. In the Scott case, however, the victim was shown only still photographs that depicted the alleged defendant. The two still photos were taken from video surveillance footage from a store where the accused used one of the victim's credit cards to make a purchase. The still photos were shown to the victim on the same day as the carjacking. When shown the photos, the victim positively identified the individual as Scott. Further, when she was asked what she specifically recognized, she responded and wrote on one of the photographs, "The sweatshirt is what the guy was wearing. His eyes are what I remember in these pictures." The victim signed and dated the photographs and further wrote that she was "100 % confident." At the criminal trial, Scott's attorney asked the criminal trial court just to exclude any evidence related to this identification by the victim. Scott's lawyer argued that the procedure caused an improper, unlawful, and suggestive identification. After reviewing the written request from Scott's lawyer and the written responses from the prosecuting attorneys, the trial court denied the request. The judge's denial of the request was one of the reasons that Scott's lawyer filed an appeal. Ultimately, the appellate court agreed with the trial judge. Even if there was a suggestive element to the victim's identification of Scott, the totality of the circumstances showed no misidentification. Various facts led to that conclusion, including the fact that the photos were shown to the victim on the same day as the carjacking, she identified specific things (like the color and markings on Scott's clothes), she stated her confidence to be 100%, etc. From just this one example, we can see the importance of having experienced Louisiana attorneys help with your criminal defense. Essentially, every decision and action taken by the criminal court judge can be the basis for an appeal. In Scott's case, it was the court's denial of the request to exclude the victim's identification that became an issue on appeal. In other cases, it might be the criminal defense attorney's verbal objection to evidence, to questions asked at trial, to the use of documents, etc. Contact A Caddo Parish Louisiana Criminal Appeals Attorney Today For more information, contact the Law Offices of Philip B. Adams today. We are relentless, meticulous, and aggressive Louisiana criminal appeal lawyers. Complete our "Contact Us" page here. You may significantly benefit by having an attorney with legal competence and experience assist you with your Louisiana criminal case. We have offices in Shreveport and handle criminal defense cases and appeals throughout all of Louisiana. |