Essay On Affirmative Defense

In criminal law, there are multiple defenses to a crime.

One of those defenses can be defined as affirmative defense. Affirmative defense is defenses like alibis. An alibi can be used when a defendant is not physically able to commit a crime. For example, April is charged with first degree murder but is not physically around the crime. She could use an alibi as a defense.

The next kind of criminal defense is the insanity defense. The insanity defense is rarely used as an effective defense. To use the defense successfully, the defendant must have a serve mental disease or defect at the time of the crime. It must be clear that because of this disease or defect the defendant did not understand their actions. In using this defense,

the defendant must admit guilt but state the defendant is mentally incapable.
Another defense is, coercion and duress. Coercion and duress is an affirmative criminal defenses that states that the defendant were forced to commit a crime because of the threat of unlawful force. The threat of force does not always have to be at the individual themselves. The threat of force could be extended to a family member of that individual. Coercion and duress defense cannot be invoked if the defendant’s actions put the defendant in that reckless situation. For example, if David is forced to rob a bank to ensure that Kirk would not hurt David’s sister Amy. During, that robbery David shoots and kills Sam, a bank teller. David could not use the defense of coercion or duress for the murder. He could the defense for the robbery.
Other criminal defenses include self-defense, consent, involuntary intoxication and statute of limitations.

Self-defense could only be used if the actions were used to defend oneself. Those actions must be necessary. The use of force by that individual must match the force used by the attacking force. For example, if Joe attacks Ryan with a knife, Joe is legally able to defend himself with deadly force. Joe cannot continue to use deadly force, when the attacking force is disabled.

Consent is a defense that acknowledges that the defendant did commit come act but it was with the consent of the victim. A person cannot give consent to murder. Only a few crimes can consent be given.

Involuntary intoxication is the defense that during the crime the defendant was drugged, making the illegal action occur. So, if Georgina was roofed at a party. While under the influence, Georgina unknowingly breaks into the home of Arizona. She could use involuntary intoxication as a defense to the breaking and entering charges.

Statute of limitations is a defense that states that the amount of time for the prosecution has to bring charges against a defendant has passed. Therefore, the charges have to be dropped.

These are just a few of the defenses available to criminals during a criminal

trial.