It’s Important to Prove Where You Were during a Crime
Video Transcribed: This is Stuart Ericson, a Wagoner lawyer. We are talking about some defenses to accusations or charges of criminal conduct. One of the defenses is the alibi defense.
I think we’ve all heard of the alibi defense, “Hey, I have an alibi,” which basically means you’re presenting facts or evidence that you were somewhere else when a crime was committed, or you were maybe at the spot where the crime was committed, but at a totally different time. So that would be an alibi, saying, “I could not have committed that crime there when it was committed or there at a different time.”
Now, this is a defense that has to be requested. It’s a defense where there are timeframes involved of giving notice to the state of Oklahoma in court that basically you’re going to use this defense and, of course, have to show, as in all discovery, what the evidence is, what witnesses, and it may be eyewitnesses that presents an alibi defense. Of course, your own testimony could lend some evidence toward an alibi defense. You may have been at a convenience store where there is video surveillance showing you at a different place at a different time. So all of that would be evidence.
And of course, the best evidence for an alibi would always be an objective, non-biased witness. So of course, if you’re at a convenience store where there’s video surveillance and you can prove that, that’s about as unbiased and objective as you can get. So that’s how alibi defense works, is you have to bring it up, give notice, and just say, “Hey, it wasn’t me, wasn’t there, not at that time.” And then, of course, you would ask for acquittal if you’re going all the way to trial.
And again, the jury is what decides what the facts are. It’s not a judge. The jury decides what the facts are. So after the testimony is introduced, if the jury says, “Yeah, he was not there,” or, “She was not there at the commission of this crime,” then the jury decides that, and you would get a not guilty verdict.
So if you have any other questions about the alibi, reach out to me, a criminal defense attorney in Oklahoma, at stuartericson@wagonerlawyer.com.
