Criminal Lawyers in Muskogee Protecting the Rights of the Accused
If you’ve been charged with a crime or are being investigated for a crime, you need experienced legal counsel now. Our experienced criminal lawyers in Muskogee, Oklahoma will endeavor to preserve your rights and to maximize your options.
Planning your defense early is your best path forward. The consequences of a criminal conviction are high, including the expense, the limitations on your freedom, and the negative effects to your reputation.
Protect your rights, your reputation, and your future by working closely with a skilled criminal lawyer whom you trust.
The Criminal Justice Process
Criminal law is a complex web of legislation that can be confounding for even the most experienced legal experts. However, it is beneficial for you to try to understand the basic procedures involved in the criminal justice process.
- Investigatory Stage: The investigation of a crime begins when the authorities become aware of or suspicious of a crime having been committed and begin gathering evidence in support of this suspicion. This is where a search warrant authorizing the authorities to enter locations and look for evidence might come into play.
- Arrest and Booking: A police officer can typically make an arrest in one of several circumstances, including when there is probable cause (rationally based on fact) that a crime was committed, a crime was committed in the officer’s presence, or there’s a warrant out for the individual’s arrest. Booking is the act of actually being put in jail.
- Arraignment: At arraignment (which generally must be held within a relatively short period of time) – the defendant’s first court appearance after arrest – the judge will advise regarding charges, potential penalties, and specific constitutional rights.
- Jury Call Docket: The jury call docket is the court hearing whereby the defendant announces whether he or she is proceeding to trial or is pleading guilty.
From here, plea options come into play. Ultimately, the case will proceed to trial if nothing intervenes in the interim.
Your Criminal Charges
If you’re facing criminal charges, it’s very likely the most stressful experience of your life. However, you have extensive legal rights that are intended to protect you throughout the criminal justice process.
Specifically, you are entitled to due process of law, which is rooted in the Fifth Amendment. The right guarantees that no one among us shall be deprived of our lives, our freedom, or our property without due process of the law – both procedural and substantive. This applies from the time you are arrested or charged until the time that your case reaches its ultimate conclusion.
Low-cost Consultation: Muskogee Criminal Lawyer
Only experienced criminal lawyers in Muskogee can work to build a strong defense for you. What may look like insignificant issues to an inexperienced attorney may, in the end, determine your case.
Details matter when piecing together the evidence for your defense. Our Muskogee attorneys will stand up for you against bogus criminal charges or negotiate a better outcome if you did indeed commit a crime.
Our attorneys know how to present in court the details that can make a significant effect on the result of the criminal case.
Call a Muskogee criminal defense attorney today at 918-884-7774 with your questions. You may also schedule a low-cost, confidential consultation.