Many cases depend on whether attorneys are able to get the surveillance footage of the alleged events. Tampa criminal defense attorneys are often requested by their clients to immediately obtain the surveillance footage of their alleged crimes. Everyone is well aware of the widespread use of surveillance cameras throughout our communities, including personal residences, shopping centers, banks, schools, etc. Tampa made national news by installing numerous cameras prior to the Republican National Convention in 2012.
In short, your Tampa criminal defense attorney should certainly seek out that footage, especially if it helps support your position or defense. We can obtain such evidence either through simply requesting the evidence or subpoenaing it, if necessary. In a murder trial in February 2013, surveillance footage from a neighboring building help us save our Client from an eventual life sentence, since it demonstrated multiple issues with identifying the alleged shooter.
As we have discussed elsewhere in our Tampa criminal defense attorney blog, if the State Attorney’s Office has evidence that in any way supports your defense and could help you be found not guilty, they have an ethical obligation and duty to provide it to the defendant under a line of cases beginning with Brady v. Maryland. Generally though, law enforcement in misdemeanor cases do not do that sort of investigation for neighboring surveillance footage. The majority of the cases, where surveillance footage, will be an issue occurs with petit theft charges in shopping stores. Wal-Mart and Publix have incredible security cameras throughout their stores. I have personally seen Wal-Mart’s surveillance cameras zoom in on someone’s driver’s license while they were attempting to cash a money order prior to shop lifting. As you can imagine, such evidence is incredibly difficult to overcome in a case.
At Hackworth Law, we utilize a team of criminal private investigators, many of whom are former law enforcement, to assist us getting the evidence needed to acquit our clients. Many times the answers and evidence are out there; it just takes time, effort and know how to go get it. Even more importantly, it is critical to act quickly because many times businesses keep their surveillance footage on a loop, so it is constantly recording over itself. If you wait too long in retaining a Tampa criminal defense attorney, the evidence may have already been destroyed by the time, we attempt to obtain it for you and your defense.
If you or someone you know has questions concerning how to get potential beneficial evidence for their criminal case, contact the Tampa criminal defense attorneys of Hackworth Law for a free case review. We have assisted many people, just like you, defend themselves in court, literally all across Florida. We appreciate you taking the time to check out our blog. If you want to contact one of our Tampa criminal defense attorneys immediately, please use the “contact us now” tab in the upper right hand corner of our website.