"I don't need a lawyer — I didn't do anything." Brian Foley has heard that sentence from people who were later convicted. He explains in this video why innocence, by itself, is not a defense strategy.
How innocent people get convicted
- They talk. Believing they have nothing to hide, they give a statement that contains a mistake, a contradiction, or a detail that places them at the scene.
- They miss deadlines. The 15-day ALR deadline, the discovery deadline for defense evidence, the deadline to file a motion to suppress.
- They take the offer. Facing a felony and a court date, they accept a misdemeanor plea "to make it go away" — and carry a conviction for something they did not do.
- They trust the process. They assume a prosecutor will see the truth in the file. Prosecutors see the offense report, and the offense report was written by the person who arrested them.
- They lose the evidence. Surveillance footage is overwritten in days. Witnesses move. Phones are replaced.
What a defense lawyer actually does for an innocent client
Preserves the video before it is gone. Interviews the witnesses before the State does. Gets the phone records, the receipts, the location data. Presents the exculpatory evidence to the prosecutor — or the grand jury — in a way that makes dismissal the easy decision. Files the motions that exclude unreliable identifications and unlawfully obtained evidence. And, if it comes to that, tries the case in front of a jury that has been selected to actually listen.
Innocence is a fact. A dismissal is an outcome. Getting from one to the other is the job. Brian Foley and Luis Baez are former prosecutors who know how cases are built — and how they should never have been filed. Call or text (409) 877-4909.