Legal Question in Criminal Law in Texas
It seems like all of the research that can be done on cases involves the appeals court, which is after someone already went to prison. Is there a place I can research cases where people were found not guilty or the case didn't even go to trial, like the police dropped the case or the court didn't go to trial? I'm helping a friend who was accused of something.
2 Answer from Attorneys
Sorry, but I don't think you're going to be successful coming at it from that angle. The vast majority of criminal cases are resolved one way or the other with no real record of the factual or legal details, like there is with appellate cases. There is no real way to research what you're asking for, assuming it's something along the lines of, "How often will the prosecutor end up agreeing to dismiss under these facts?" Appellate cases CAN indirectly tell you basically whether cases like that which have resulted in conviction have been upheld on appeal, which is definitely something that both prosecutors and defense attorneys look at carefully before making decisions about how to handle a given case.
Other than looking at case law, about the only way you're probably going to find out what would likely happen in whatever situation it is your friend is in is to ask a variety of criminal defense attorneys who have practiced long enough to have an idea of how things normally end up. But presumably your friend already has an attorney, hopefully one who has that experience or can talk to ofhers who do, so you might want to just leave that to him or her.
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