Criminal Defense Lawyer in Virginia Beach

Felony Strangulation

In order for you to be convicted of Felony Strangulation the Commonwealth must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused committed an act that either temporarily cut off the other person’s blood circulation or temporarily cut off the other person’s ability to breathe.

Since the prosecutor only needs to prove that one of the two was momentarily restricted, they seem to generally be more focused on proving the latter opposed to the former. You may ask why this is. I believe this is because it is generally easier for them to prove the lack of ability to breathe because all they have to do is have the alleged victim testify on the stand that they were in fact unable to breathe during the strangulation. Conversely, it would seem like the prosecutor would have to call a medical expert to take the stand and testify that the act caused the alleged victim’s blood circulation to be impeded. Your defense lawyer should look out for any physical evidence of lack of blood circulation such as popped eye vessels etc. and they should also question the alleged victim directly as to whether or not they were able to breathe during the incident. Sometimes the alleged victim will admit they were able to breathe during the incident and if they admit this and there is no medical evidence/ expert testimony for the lack of blood circulation then you should be found not guilty on the Felony Strangulation charge. Note, that even if the alleged victim says they were not able to breathe the defense attorney can still sometimes show that they were able to breathe, especially if the alleged victim is testifying that they were talking during the alleged act. For example, if the alleged victim says that the accused was strangling them and as they were doing it the alleged victim kept screaming for the person to stop, that would then imply that they were able to breathe during the incident, I think everyone would agree that if someone’s talking the whole time than they’re also breathing the whole time.