San Antonio Criminal Lawyers

Hiring a private criminal lawyer is highly recommended if you have been charged with a crime.  While public defenders or court appointed lawyers will do their best to defend you, they have limited time and resources when dealing with you case.  However, a private San Antonio criminal lawyer can investigate your charges more thoroughly and may uncover evidence that tends to negate your guilt. 

San Antonio is home to one of the more organized criminal courts in the state of Texas, but your criminal trial may still take months or possibly even years.  When you hire a Bexar County attorney, he or she will help you understand the process and keep you informed on any updates or progress in your trial.  If you do experience a long await before trial, this can be taxing as far as mental stress but lengthy time between charge and trial usually favors the defendant in a case.

Over 90% of cases never actually go to trial.  More often than not, your case will either result in a plea bargain or an outright dismissal.  A defense attorney is helpful in this instance because they can lobby the prosecutor to reduce a plea to minimal charges.  For example, you may have been charged with a felony, but if the prosecutor's case isn't strong and your lawyer can convince the DA of this, the DA might agree to a misdemeanor to save time and court costs as well as the possibility of you receiving a not guilty verdict.

Another reason you may want to hire an attorney is to have your record sealed or expunged.  In an expungement your record is actually destroyed and there should be no more evidence of it.  With a seal, your record is still intact but no one has access to it.  These services can be very important if you would like to keep your past criminal record from being seen.

Crimes such as driving while intoxicated, weapons charges, sex crimes, fraud, battery, and others should be treated very seriously.  Contact a San Antonio DWI lawyer if you have been charged with a crime so you can be aware of your rights and obtain a strong legal defense.

Anyone who has intent to commit a crime and takes a step toward following through may be guilty of an attempt to commit a crime. There must be a substantial step.  Thinking of committing a crime is not a crime itself.  If someone buys a good with intent in their mind to kill someone else, the purchase of the weapon is only preparation and no crime has been committed, but if he not only buys the gun but goes to another person's house with intent to kill, then that may be enough to charge for attempt to commit a crime.

This gets into conspiracy and aiding and abetting laws which apply to many criminal offenses.  Conspiracy is two or more individuals agreeing to commit some type of crime.  When co-conspirators conspire and then one follows through, they can all be charged with the crime of the one, even if the other conspirators did nothing more than agree to the planning of a crime.  This is because they are acting in furtherance of that crime if the crime was reasonably foreseeable when the conspirators agreed.

Intentionally aiding or advising another in a crime may constitute guilt for the crime of aiding and abetting.  For example, if you advise another on the best way to commit a robbery and/or lend a robber a car to get away, you are just as liable under the law as the person who committed the crime.

The Texas Penal code divides criminal offenses into two categories: misdemeanors and felonies.  A criminal offense is any that violates the Texas Penal Code.  Misdemeanors are smaller crimes for which a person may be sentenced to jail time or a fine.  Jail time is less than one year.  Felonies include jail time all the way up to death.  Felonies are reserved for the more egregious crimes such as murder, extortion, homicide, fraud, and others.  Misdemeanors could equate to small possession of marijuana.

This information should not be used as legal advice or the law itself.  Read the Texas Penal Code online to learn more about Texas crimes and offenses.