San Diego Murder Defense Lawyers & Attorneys

San Diego Murder charges?
Contact a San Diego Criminal Defense Lawyer.

Few crimes are a serious as a murder charge.  The law defines murder as “the intentional killing of a person with ‘malice aforethought’ or premeditated thought and the intent of killing someone.”  Murder is also separated by the severity or the degree of the charge:

Many law firms do not defend murder cases. That's not surprising because no criminal charge carries such high stakes. A defendant can face the death penalty, life in prison without the possibility of parole or lengthy decades of incarceration. Governors and parole boards are not predisposed to pardon or commute sentences. Voters have consistently supported harsh sentencing laws for violent crimes and politicians respond to these constituencies. Few lawyers have the ability and experience to defend such cases. Our office does. We have defended death penalty cases. We have won acquittals in murder trials. We have won verdicts in which juries chose to convict on lesser charges. We have successfully negotiated with prosecutors to reduce the most serious homicide charges to lesser allegations that carry far less severe penalties. They key to all of this success and dedication on behalf of our clients in murder cases is experience. We have worked for decades in all of the courthouses in San Diego County on behalf of our clients. We know who the prosecutors are and what they will negotiate and what they will not. We understand the workings of the investigative staffs of the District Attorney's Office and the various police agencies in the county.

Most of all we have on a daily basis represented San Diego residents who have been charged with murder and other serious crimes at all stages of the local criminal justice system. This experience provides a skilled, cost-effective approach to aggressively defending our clients and achieving the best legal results possible for them. We have argued cases before most of the criminal judiciary in the country and are completely familiar with such important details as DNA evidence, witness statements and reliability, chain-of-custody involving evidence, forensics, laboratory tests, search warrants, wire-tapping and other electronic eavesdropping, trial briefs and jury selection. There can be no more serious charge than murder and no law firm that takes such cases any more seriously than ours. Please contact us at San Diego Defense Lawyers as soon as possible for a free consultation about all of the legal options you may have available to you.

First degree murder: According to California Penal Code “All murder which is perpetrated by means of a destructive device or explosive, a weapon of mass destruction, knowing use of ammunition designed primarily to penetrate metal or armor, poison, lying in wait, torture, or by any other kind of willful, deliberate, and premeditated killing, or which is committed in the perpetration of, or attempt to perpetrate, arson, rape, carjacking, robbery, burglary, mayhem, kidnapping, train wrecking, or any act punishable under Section 206, 286, 288, 288a, or 289, or any murder which is perpetrated by means of discharging a firearm from a motor vehicle, intentionally at another person outside of the vehicle with the intent to inflict death, is murder of the first degree.”  First degree murder is punishable by the death penalty.

Second degree murder:  Murder in the second degree is any murder not covered by any of the above categories or that does not involve special circumstances. Skilled lawyers can use many different means to seek a second degree murder charge, or have the charged changed entirely.

Murder is such a serious crime that those who are aware of the crime but do nothing to prevent it or report it can be charged as accessories, coconspirators, or even with the murder itself.  Few lawyers are able to take the mantle of responsibility of defending a person charged with murder, but you can feel confident the murder defense attorneys at Sevens Legal are ready and willing to help protect your freedom and your life.

Every person charged with murder deserves dedicated and experienced representation and a fair trial in an honest courtroom.  Your rights are guarunteed by the constitutions of the United States as well as the State of California, and we will settle for nothing less than justice for you. If you have been charged with murder, contact the San Diego Criminal Defense Law Firm today to review your case.