​Homicide

Sometimes referred to as homicide, murder is defined in Penal Code 187(a) as the "unlawful and intentional killing of a human being by another with malice of aforethought”.  This means intentionally killing someone or ending their life or acting with wanton disregard for human life. The classic examples of murder are shooting someone, bludgeoning someone or hiring an assassin to kill someone. However, murder also includes killing someone from driving drunk.  
 
A conviction for murder almost always results in a 25 years-to-life in a California state prison. However, this penalty can be enhanced to without the possibility of parole, or the death penalty, due to a number of mitigating factors such as whether or not the murder was a “hate crime”, was for financial gain, to silence a witness to another crime or part of a drive-by shooting.
 
If you are being charged with or investigated for murder, we invite you to contact us immediately. Our attorneys have years of experience defending people against murder charges and we draw upon the support of private investigators, forensic analysts, DNA experts and jury consultants to provide the best defense possible for your outcome.

​Examples of Defenses Against Homicide

Self-defense is one of the most common defenses for killing another person. If you can prove that you reasonably believed that you or another person were in imminent danger of being killed, suffering great bodily injury, being raped or the victim of some other crime of force, you may take whatever measures are reasonably necessary, including the use of deadly force, to stop that from happening.
 
If you kill someone accidentally it is not murder.  If you kill someone but had no criminal intent, you were not acting negligently or committing another time at the time of the killing, you will have a legitimate defense to murder. 
 
Police can be zealous in their investigation and interrogation methods when trying to solve a murder. However, they are not allowed to make threats towards the suspect or his/her family, which includes threatening the suspect with the death penalty or offering more lenient treatment in exchange for a confession. If the police have used such coercive tactics to extract an involuntary confession from you, we will make a motion to suppression the confession as tainted evidence. 
 
California search and seizure laws limit the power of the police to search your person and property. Through a preliminary investigation, Walk Free Law can ascertain if the police violated your Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures.  If the court grants the motion to suppress, the prosecution will likely have insufficient evidence to convict you.