If you've been charged with homicide, it means the government believes you were involved in causing the death of someone, intentionally or otherwise. Arkansas law defines several different crimes related to causing the death of another person. Different elements of proof are required for the various types of homicide or murder charges. The first step in building your defense is reviewing the government's claim of wrongdoing. The government's claim is usually set forth in a charging instrument, which could be an arrest warrant or an indictment. The government is generally restricted to proving what they say happened in the charging instrument, so this document is very important. If you don't have a copy when you come see us, you can be sure that we obtain one from the government and identify the particular charge and alleged elements of the crime.

Depending on the timing of when you hire our Jonesboro criminal defense lawyer to defend you, we may have time to request a preliminary hearing. The technical purpose of a preliminary hearing is to test whether the government has probable cause. Probable cause is a minimal legal standard the government can meet by simply showing evidence that a crime probably happened and you probably committed it. Usually, the only witness for the government at a preliminary hearing is a law enforcement officer who helped investigate and build the government's case against you. The real point of asking for a preliminary hearing is not to test probable cause, but to use the hearing as a discovery tool. By requesting a preliminary hearing, we have the opportunity to question a key government witness about the alleged evidence, how the evidence was discovered and who discovered it, in addition to questioning the government about any other activity taken by the government that may amount to a violation of your constitutional rights. If the time to request a preliminary hearing has already passed, your first court appearance is arraignment, where you have a chance to enter a not guilty plea officially. Sometimes we can avoid the need to appear in court by submitting paperwork ahead of time to enter your not guilty plea.

Defending you against a homicide charge is a serious matter. At Lilly Law Firm, PA we have many criminal defense tools at our disposal in the pursuit of your freedom. When building your case, we consider every potential defense, including:

• Self-defense
• Defense of another
• Insufficient evidence
• Insanity
• Coerced confessions
• Reasonable doubt
• Improper search and seizure
• Innocence

We determine which defenses are feasible in your case and assemble as much evidence as possible to support your defense. However, we don't stop at assembling evidence and building a defense case. Evidence sitting in a file won't do you any good. Martin Lilly's years of courtroom experience, including time at the prosecutor's table, mean that we know the correct procedural methods to present your evidence to the court properly.