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Why Criminal Charges Get Dropped

27 September 2019

Dianne Ellis

There are times when courts receive criminal charges against a person and then decide not to pursue these charges. When this happens, the court basically makes the decision to drop the charges, and the defendant no longer has to deal with the charges he or she was originally facing. Here are some of the reasons this happens in criminal law.

There is no proof a crime was actually committed

When the police suspect a crime of any kind, they make a report, which includes all the details of the crime. The police then forward this report to the local prosecutor who has the job of reading through the report and determining how to proceed with it. If there is no evidence at all on the report that clearly shows that a crime was actually committed, there is a good chance the prosecutor will drop the charges. There must be a crime in order for charges to be filed and followed through with. If the evidence cannot prove this, it is very hard for the court to proceed with a case.

There is no evidence tying you to the crime

As the prosecutor reads through the report, he or she also looks for evidence that ties the defendant to the crime. When there is plenty of evidence to show that the person likely committed the crime, they will proceed with the charges. If, however, the prosecutor feels that the case lacks evidence to prove that the defendant committed the crime, he or she will often choose to just drop the charges instead of pursuing them.

The police did something wrong during the arrest

Additionally, if there is any evidence that the police acted inappropriately or failed to follow the law during the arrest, the court could also choose to simply drop the charges. For example, if the report shows that the officer did not have a good reason to pull the person over, or if the report demonstrates any type of wrongdoing on the part of the officer, the prosecutor would have a good reason to simply drop the case. In some situations, it may take time for the prosecutor to find out that something wrong happened during the arrest, which means it may take a while for them to decide to drop the charges.

If you have questions about the criminal charges you are facing, the best thing for you to do is talk to a criminal lawyer at a firm like Wolfe  Jones Wolfe Hancock Daniel & South LLC.

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