The Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution gives you the right to a fair trial if you are being accused of a crime. The elements of a fair trial are many, but one of them is an impartial jury. Oklahoma takes the right to a jury trial even more seriously than most other states. In some states, a jury trial is only a fundamental right if you are being charged with a felony, but jury trials are also the default option for misdemeanor cases in Oklahoma. The only difference is that, in a misdemeanor case, there are six jurors, whereas there are 12 jurors in a felony case. It is also poss ..read more

In many cases, possession of drug paraphernalia is the kind of criminal charge that you can easily laugh off. Impress your roommates with the story of how a police K-9 zeroed in on the spoon on the passenger seat of your car during a traffic stop, despite your protests that the spoon was only there to help you with a Five Guys milkshake and, as you are only a little bit of a slob, you threw away the empty cup, if not the spoon. How much trouble a piece of drug paraphernalia can get you in depends on the drug activity with which it is most closely associated. A spoon or a syringe suggests drug ..read more

If you are on trial in criminal court, then the level of certainty that matters is “beyond a reasonable doubt.” The jury must acquit you if they think that you might be guilty as long as they have reasonable doubt about your guilt. Likewise, in civil lawsuits, the outcome depends on whether a preponderance of the evidence shows that the plaintiff’s claims are true. Therefore, if you are a plaintiff in a civil lawsuit, your goal is to show that there is a greater than 50% chance that you are correct, whereas if you are a defendant, your goal is to show that there is a less than 50 percent chanc ..read more

When you are talking to the police about your criminal case, anything you say can and will be used against you, but when you are talking one-on-one with your criminal defense lawyer, the opposite is true. You can say anything, no matter how incriminating, up to and including an outright confession, and your lawyer is not allowed to reveal the content of your conversation to anyone. This is called attorney-client privilege. If you say, “I didn’t do it,” your lawyer might say, “There is no way the jury will believe that.” This does not mean that pleading guilty is your only option. “I didn’t do ..read more

Most criminal cases do not go to trial; a far more likely scenario is that the defendant will plead guilty before the prosecution starts its opening arguments. Some defendants plead guilty as soon as the judge asks them to enter a plea at the arraignment, while others start out with a not-guilty plea but change their plea to guilty as the preparations for the trial progress. Some of these convictions are preventable. Prosecutors may make it sound like the jury will be completely sure that you are guilty after they see the evidence exhibits or hear the witness testimony, but there is more than ..read more

Defendants who go to trial take a big risk, even though every defendant has the right to a fair trial, and even though all you have to do is show reasonable doubt about whether you committed the crime or whether the police and prosecution followed the law in arresting you and prosecuting your case. Do you really want to say, “I didn’t do it,” when there is ample evidence that you did?  Not all defenses are “I didn’t do it” defenses; some are “I did it, but I am not guilty” defenses. One such category of these defenses is procedural defenses, where you claim that the state violated the law ..read more

In movies, defendants often get taken completely by surprise when police knock on their doors and want to search the house for drugs. This sometimes happens in real life, too, but it is also possible that prosecutors will want to engage with you on friendlier terms before, or even instead of, charging you with a crime. Federal target letters sound scarier, and indeed being the recipient of one is a much more stressful situation than simply going about your day with the feeling that the police are not especially interested in you. Receiving a federal target letter is not as bad as it sounds, ho ..read more

Last week, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) formally recommended that the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) change the classification of cannabis from a Schedule I to a Schedule III controlled substance. This is the first time that a federal agency has formally proposed removing cannabis from Schedule I, the list of drugs considered the most dangerous. If the DEA accepts the recommendation, the change could have major repercussions for the legal cannabis industry, but it would be unlikely to affect state laws regarding cannabis possession. A Tulsa drug charge lawyer can help you i ..read more

You are out for a night with friends or on your way home from work when you see those flashing lights in your rearview mirror. You pull over, and the police officer asks you to step out of the car and perform a field sobriety test. What should you do? While it may seem like the best option to comply with the officer’s request, there are numerous reasons why you should refuse a field sobriety test. If you are facing DUI charges after failing or refusing a field sobriety test, our lawyer at The Law Office of Tracy Tiernan can help. Our Tulsa criminal defense lawyer helps clients develop defense ..read more

Sex-related charges can be among the most difficult and emotionally charged criminal charges to face. If you or someone you know is facing such charges, it is critical to understand that there are various potential ways to defend against them. Are you facing sex-related charges? Reach out to our Tulsa sex crimes defense lawyer at The Law Office of Tracy Tiernan to evaluate the facts of your case and identify the most effective defense strategy. What are the Possible Defenses to Sex-Related Charges? Below are some of the possible defenses to sex-related charges, which, when pursued by a skilled ..read more