Criminal Law

Facing criminal charges can be overwhelming and confusing. Understanding your rights and the complexities of criminal law is essential to protect your future. Whether you are dealing with minor offenses or serious accusations, having a knowledgeable advocate can make a critical difference. For those seeking trusted guidance, a Tulsa criminal law attorney can help clarify the legal process and outline your options.

If you need legal help, call Wirth Law Office at (918) 879-1681. The experienced Tulsa attorney team at Wirth Law Office understands the stakes involved and works diligently to build a strong defense tailored to your case. Early and effective legal support can reduce uncertainty and protect your rights under Oklahoma law.

Subcategories

State Question 805: What About The Victims? (Part 6)
If you are a registered victim with the Department of Corrections, you are entitled to notice if your perpetrator files a request for sentence modification based on State Question 805. Read more »
State Question 805: Does 805 Have Retroactive Application? (Part 5)
Does Oklahoma State Question 805 have a retroactive application? I'm Tulsa criminal defense attorney James Wirth. Does it apply retroactively, and the answer is yes, it does. Read more »
State Question 805: What Is A Violent Crime Under 805? (Part 4)
First off violent crime does not mean what the common-sense definition of violent crime might be or what the Webster's dictionary violent crime definition might be. When it comes to the law, definitions are what the statute says it is. And even if it's nonsensical, that's what the definition is. Read more »
State Question 805: What Is Sentence Enhancement? (Part 3)
Oklahoma has the habitual offender statute and that deals with general enhancement and then also many crimes also have a specific enhancement. Read more »
State Question 805: Why Is It a Constitutional Amendment? (Part 2)
In Oklahoma, you need to get 8% of the voting population to sign off on your initiative petition if you want to introduce it to be a new law. Read more »
State Question 805: What's It About? (Part 1)
Oklahoma locks up 655 people for every 100,000, which makes Oklahoma the number one nation in the world for lock-ups. Read more »
What are the Four Types of Pleas in Oklahoma Criminal Courts?
So the first one, obviously you should be aware of, that's the not guilty plea. When you show up for your initial appearance arraignment, I mean, it's so commonplace that you usually don't even have to say it. The judge is just going to give you a plea of not guilty and gets you to the next court date because that's the standard thing to do to start the case and start working to see if an agreement can be reached with the prosecutor if it needs to go to trial. But that is if you do need to say it, you enter a plea of not guilty, you get to the next stage. All right. The next type of plea is usually part of a plea agreement. It's a no contest plea or a nolo contendere. And what that means is that you are not admitting guilt, but you're acknowledging that there's sufficient evidence for you to be found guilty and that you're essentially requesting that the court find you guilty in order to enter a plea agreement or to enter a blind plea. So that's nolo contendere or no contest. Read more »
What is a Blind Plea in an Oklahoma Criminal Case?
You see people enter not guilty, guilty, all of those types of things. But a blind plea is really a type of resolution to your case. So you can get a plea deal worked out with the state or the prosecutor and enter that as a plea deal. You can go to trial, either a bench trial or a jury trial, where the evidence is put on and force the state to either meet their burden or you be acquitted, or there's middle ground. Let's say you've got a case that you're not real comfortable going before a jury because there's a lot of risk in going to a jury. Nobody ever knows exactly for sure what a jury is going to do. Read more »
Concurrent Sentence vs. Consecutive Sentence in Oklahoma Criminal Cases
So when we're talking about a concurrent sentence, or CC, and a consecutive sentence, CS, we're talking about somebody who has multiple counts or multiple cases that are being essentially pled or sentenced together. And then once that happens, you might have a case with five different counts, might be entering a plea on all of them or found guilty on all of them. Each of those counts can have a separate sentence. So the question becomes are you serving them at the same time or do you have to finish the sentence on one before you get to the other? And if it's concurrent, that means that you're serving it at the same time. So if you've got a one year sentence on all of them, once you complete the one year on one of them, you've completed on all of them. Read more »
What is an Application to Revoke in Oklahoma?
All right, so first I said, "application to revoke," and then I said, "motion to revoke". Why am I changing it up? Well, that's because it gets changed up out there. Some counties call them application to revoke; other prosecutors like to file them as motions to revoke. Either way, they're the same thing, though. That's where we're dealing with somebody who's on probation that got a suspended sentence. Meaning, they were found guilty, but they weren't thrown in jail. Instead, the judge said, "Pursuant to a plea agreement..." or pursuant to the judge's ruling, that they got to serve their time outside on probation, where there's various things they have to complete, and they have to stay out of trouble. Read more »
3 Options Every Defendant in Oklahoma Always Has to Resolve Their Criminal Case
Sometimes we file motions for deficits in the case, maybe they're speedy trial violations, we get them dismissed that way, then it's up to the judge whether our motions are granted. So those are ways that are up to the DA, whether they'll dismiss, whether it's up to the judge, whether they'll order dismissal, based on legal grounds that we come up with in our motions. And then there's the three that are up to the defendant. And the first one of those is plea deal. The defendant always has the option of accepting a plea deal, or not accepting a plea deal. Your attorney's going to negotiate with the state show the strengths of the defense's case, the weaknesses in the state's case, and use as much leverage in mitigation we have to get the best possible plea offer. Read more »
What is a DOC Sentence in an Oklahoma Criminal Case?
DOC, we're talking about jail time or we're talking about jail time in the penitentiary. If the sentence is over a year, then you're looking at doing penitentiary time. If it's under a year on a misdemeanor, it could be county time. But, that usually comes up either pursuant to a plea deal in order to avoid a larger sentence. Sometimes a plea deal to avoid the death penalty. It's a blind plea and you get sentenced by the judge, without a plea agreement from the state for jail time or you go to jury trial and the default on jury trial when the jury recommends punishment and says 10 years, you don't really get the option for 10 years deferred, 10 years to spend in the jail. When the jury says 10 years, it means 10 years in, which is 10 years DOC time. That's the way that that works. As far as DOC time. Read more »
What is an Application to Accelerate in Oklahoma?
When you're on a deferred sentence and the prosecutor is alleging that you violated your probation, they file an application to accelerate alleging that. And then once they file an application to accelerate, they have an affidavit that goes with it and that goes to the judge to sign an arrest warrant just like a brand new case. You get an arrest warrant out and then you're arrested on that. You come before the court, you're entitled to a hearing fairly quick on those, but you can waive that if you want additional time to prepare. And you want to find out what exactly they're alleging, that'll be in the application and then negotiate something out. Read more »
What is a Split Sentence in an Oklahoma Criminal Case?
A split sentence is a combination between a suspended sentence and a DOC sentence or a jail time sentence. So you might have a 7/3 split, and that would be where you're going to serve seven years in and then you get three years probation. Or, a 5/5 split or whatever the case may be. Sometimes if you're doing just a little bit of jail time, what they may say in the sentencing is you've got a "five years all suspended but the first 30 days", and then you do 30 days in and the rest is suspended. Read more »
What is a Suspended Sentence in Oklahoma?
So it's similar in some respects to the deferred because you're on probation for a period of time and you stay out of jail. But the main difference is with the suspended sentence, you get a conviction. So you work out a plea deal with the state, or maybe you do a blind plea and it gets sentenced by the judge. Either case, if you get a suspended sentence, from that moment that you're sentenced, you are guilty of that offense and you have it on your record. So, if it's a misdemeanor, you've got a misdemeanor conviction. If it's a felony, now you're a convicted felon if you weren't before. Read more »
What is a Continued Sentence in Oklahoma?
A deferred sentence is where you're on probation for a period of time and then it's dismissed and expunged. A continued sentence is a little bit different. So in a continued sentence, you've reached an agreement with the prosecutor and pursuant to that deal, you enter a plea and then you're put on probation for a period of time. Read more »
What is a Deferred Prosecution Agreement in Oklahoma?
So there's usually two ways about a deferred prosecution agreement that it gets worked out. Sometimes it happens before a criminal case is filed. So there's an investigation going on and there's negotiations going on with the prosecutor. This happens a lot of times with bogus checks. So if a bogus check gets turned into the DA's office, a lot of times they'll contact the person and they workout a payment plan on it. Read more »
What is a Deferred Sentence in Oklahoma Courts?
So first thing about deferred sentence is you don't want to confuse them with a deferred prosecution. In a deferred prosecution, that's just a deal between you and the prosecutor, the defendant and the prosecutor. The courts not really involved in that. With a deferred sentence, that's more formal and it's done with the court and court's approval. What is a deferred sentence? That is essentially..... Read more »
Is the Coronavirus Grounds to get out of Jail in Oklahoma?
Oklahoma Department of Corrections has decided that they're no longer going to receive new inmates from county. Generally, somebody gets charged in a county court, once they're convicted, they pull chains, and they get sent off to Oklahoma Department of Corrections. And then, they get placed into a penitentiary system there. That's no longer happening. Read more »
It Is Possible You Are Committing a Crime and You Might Not Even Know It
Filing a false protective order is a crime in Oklahoma! But, is it ever prosecuted? Tulsa Attorney James Wirth explores that topic. There could be a punishment up to one year in jail and up to a $5,000 fine for a first offense, and up to two years in jail and a $10,000 fine for a subsequent offense. Read more »
Oklahoma Deportation and Removal Defense Attorneys
Don’t Give Up on Your Dream When you or your loved one has been served removal papers there is no time to lose. The future depends on decisions of an immigration court that hears thousands of cases every year. Yet, there may be only one opportunity to make your case. Someone in detention waiting for […] Read more »
Oklahoma Criminal Appeals
Oklahoma Criminal Appeals and Post-Conviction Investigations It is a tragedy of our justice system that sometimes people are convicted of crimes unjustly. There are few personal tragedies that can match the injustice of being wrongly accused and convicted on a criminal charge. Sometimes Oklahoma criminal courts get the law wrong. Sometimes juries get the facts […] Read more »
Oklahoma Parole Hearings
Every year thousands of parolees and inmates face State of Oklahoma parole hearings. Far too many go it alone and get bad results. A parole lawyer from Wirth Law Office – Tulsa can help you or your loved one get better results when facing more prison time by failing to obtain parole or a revocation […] Read more »
Probation Violations in Tulsa
Lawyer for Probation Violations in Tulsa For offenses punishable by jail time, often defendants will be required to have a period of probation after a conviction as an alternative to serving the time. This can last months or years. By completing the probation period and meeting the related requirements, a defendant may resolve the charge […] Read more »
Federal Criminal Defense Attorney in Oklahoma
Federal Criminal Defense Attorney in Oklahoma A federal prosecutor – officially called an Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) – is the most elite member of the law enforcement community. They have far more time and resources than any local prosecutor and they are supported by elite investigators of the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies. […] Read more »