As you might guess, when a jury deliberates whether somebody is guilty of murder, they're going to look at the evidence.  They will review what the prosecutors present.  Are there any eyewitnesses?  Is there any video evidence?  Are there any admissions by the defendant?  Is there any DNA evidence?  Is there any fingerprint evidence?

Our criminal defense lawyers are providing an overview below to help readers better understand what juries look for when determining whether a defendant is guilty or innocent in a murder case.

From my extensive experience of over twenty-five years, I can attest that juries primarily seek hard evidence.  They look for witnesses who can unequivocally identify the defendant as the perpetrator. They seek admissions from the defendant or testimonies from co-conspirators that incriminate the defendant.

Did the defendant admit to doing something?  This is a crucial point. The defendant's testimony, along with any statements from other co-conspirators or co-defendants, can significantly impact the case.

So, they're going to look at hard evidence. If it's just guesswork, speculation, or fishing on the part of the prosecutors, and they just think the person might be guilty, that's not going to be enough to get somebody convicted of a murder case.

Juries know in Los Angeles County, in particular, where I've tried a lot of murder cases, that it's not fair to convict somebody of murder if they don't have good, hard, solid evidence. This is especially true in a first-degree murder case.

As the defense, our role is not just to present evidence, but to guide the jury's understanding of it. We paint a clear picture of what evidence should be present if the defendant is guilty of murder.  If this evidence is lacking, we provide a compelling reason for its absence-the defendant's innocence.

That reason the person is not guilty of this particular murder case, and the prosecutor can't prove all the elements of the crime.

One thing you also need to realize is that each case hinges on its specific facts.  So, not in all cases is it relevant that there are witnesses or DNA evidence.  It all depends on the circumstances.

In some cases, the person admits that they killed the other party, but they were defending themselves.  So, if there are no eyewitnesses to it and there's bad blood between the two parties, and you can bring evidence that shows that they were defending themselves, that could be itself a complete defense to the murder case.

Motive, Witnesses, Fingerprints, Defendant's Statements

Other times, they find a body, and the person is dead, and they don't know who did it.  They are going to try to see if your defendant has a motive to do it.  They're going to try and see if your defendant left any clues or evidence, or fingerprints.  Or are there any witnesses who saw the defendant there?

Did your defendant talk to anybody about killing another party?  So, you can't just say the same thing in every murder case.

It depends on how the murder occurred, who the suspects are, whether or not it's clear or not that a particular defendant actually is the one who killed the other party, or whether the argument is that they're not the one who killed the other party.

Once you have all this information, you can start discussing what a jury will consider and what evidence they'll need to convict a person, and that's one of the key aspects that I focus on.

I sit down and meet with the client. I go over their story, and I love to have all the evidence at hand when I meet with the client. I love to have looked at all the video evidence, talked to the witnesses in the case, seen the police reports, and talked to the prosecutor about their theory of the murder.

After gathering the evidence, I sit down with the defendant and say, 'Here's what evidence they claim they have.  Here's what the prosecutor thinks happened.  Now, you tell me.  What's your side of the story?' The defendant's perspective is crucial in building our defense strategy.

Then, I get the defendant's side of the story. Once I have all that, I might have my investigator conduct some investigation, speak with witnesses, review some of the evidence in the case, and thoroughly evaluate it to determine if that evidence will be crucial in proving the case.

Then, I get together a list of pros and cons in the case.  Here's the stuff that's good for us.  Here's the evidence we'll be able to present to the jury, and here are the issues we need to address.

Here's what the prosecutors plan to present to the jury.  Then, once you have that evidence, you start to think to yourself, what evidence is going to be most important to a jury?  Sometimes, there will be evidence that can be interpreted in either way.  There's a kind of gray area, and we need to build up evidence to support you.

Once we have all that laid out, we're in a position to evaluate the case and get an idea of what we think a jury might do in this particular murder case. Then, we can decide whether to take it to trial and risk conviction, or whether to proceed with trial because we've strong evidence and the client claims innocence and did not commit the crime.

Review Murder Case Strategy with a Criminal Lawyer

That's really how I break the tie in these murder cases when I'm evaluating what a jury might do.  I say, yeah, the jury could go this way; the jury could go that way.  Perhaps it's not clear what the jury will do.  Maybe the case could go either way.  How you break the tie is by asking your client.

If you had anything to do with this murder, if you believe that you did commit the murder, and you do believe you did some of these bad things that the prosecutors are claiming you did, we should probably work out a deal.

You don't want to take a chance of going down when we might be able to get you something less than twenty-five to life or fifty-to-life if you're convicted full-boat for this murder.

If, on the other hand, you did not murder this person, you are not guilty of this murder, and you believe that in your heart and you don't think you did anything wrong, then absolutely you should not take a deal.

We should move forward with full force, even if there's a chance you might lose.  If you're innocent, you must move ahead.  It would be best if you defended yourself.  It would be best if you fought the case.  Let's get the evidence.  Let's get the witnesses.

Defendant Testimony in a Murder Case

You might have to testify as a criminal defendant in the case because a jury likes to see a defendant testify, in my experience in a murder case, because they want to hear what they have to say.

The key is whether that testimony will benefit you, whether you can withstand cross-examination if you do testify, and, finally, how a jury will view your testimony.

Will they consider you a solid, credible witness, or will they doubt your credibility and suspect that some unfavorable evidence has been presented against you?  These are the types of things we have to evaluate in a murder case in Los Angeles when considering whether to fight the case or take it to trial in front of a jury.

We need to consider how the jury will react to this evidence, how well you'll come across as a witness, and our actual chances of winning the case and securing a not-guilty verdict.