When the police arrest someone and charge them with a crime, the alleged criminal has certain rights, including those that are given through the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution. If you were arrested and charged with a crime but believe you are innocent, you might be able to use the rights given to you through this amendment to get the court to drop the charges. Here are several things to understand about this.

Rights you have through the Fifth Amendment

The Fifth Amendment gives criminals rights and holds police officials responsible for conducting arrests in certain ways. One part of this amendment is it requires police to read a person their Miranda rights to inform an alleged criminal of the protection they have under the law.

This amendment also gives a person on trial the right not to answer questions, if the answers would incriminate them.

Ways your rights can be violated

There are several ways your lawyer might be able to use this amendment to get your charges dropped and thrown out of court. The first is if the police did not follow protocol by reading you your rights. If this did not happen, tell your lawyer, and he or she could use this in the strategy for fighting your case.

A second way this amendment can be used is getting your admission of the crime thrown out if the police recorded you saying you committed it without first warning you of your right to remain silent. If you admitted to the crime, it was against the rights you have to remain silent. In other words, your testimony is incriminating to you, and the court may have to throw this out because it breaks your Fifth Amendment right.

What your lawyer might suggest doing

After telling your lawyer the entire story, he or she may find that your Fifth Amendment rights were violated, and this can be the perfect defense strategy to use when fighting your case in court. In addition, if your case does go to court and you are the only witness in the case, this amendment gives you the right to choose not to testify in court.

If you feel that you are innocent and should not be charged with the crime in question, you should immediately talk to a criminal defense lawyer like those at Fessenden Laumer & DeAngelo, PLLC to find out what you can do to get out of the charges filed against you.