Murder and violent felony defense
Cases that carry life sentences are prepared differently from cases that do not. Everything is contested, and nothing is assumed.
Georgia murder prosecutions carry the possibility of life without parole, and felony murder can be charged on a wide range of underlying offenses. The charging decision itself is often a place where a case can be shaped before trial, because what the state elects to charge determines what the jury is permitted to consider.
These cases turn on physical evidence, forensic work, and witnesses. The firm litigates the admissibility of each of those directly: how identification procedures were conducted, how forensic testing was performed, and whether the state's witnesses have reasons of their own to testify as they do.
Self-defense, accident, and identity are the recurring issues, and each is developed from the scene, the physical record, and the statements of everyone involved. The firm works with investigators and forensic experts rather than accepting a report at face value.
Brian Steel has tried capital and violent felony cases in Georgia from his earliest years as a public defender through three decades of private practice, and has argued the resulting appeals in the Georgia appellate courts.