There Is a Time Limit for Prosecutions
Video Transcribed: What is a criminal statute of limitation in Oklahoma? I’m James Wirth, a lawyer in Tulsa, and that is the question that we have, a statute of limitation for criminal cases. And that sets up essentially a deadline for a criminal case to be prosecuted, and if prosecutors or the state of Oklahoma, if they wait too long to charge a crime, then it can be dismissed for being outside of that statute of limitations.
The idea is to have finality here so that if a crime is committed and a certain amount of time goes by, they can’t charge you with that 50 years later, 100 years later, that once the statute of limitations is expired, they can no longer go after that criminal prosecution. Now, how long is the statute of limitations on various crimes? That I’m going to cover in a different video that is going to come after this one.
Also, there are other things that set timelines for when things must move forward in a criminal case, such as your right to a speedy trial, and I’m going to cover videos on after this one. But as far as the statute of limitations, that is the amount of time that the state, the county district attorney, or the municipal prosecutor, to file charges against somebody before it is too late to do so. And most of the time, the statute of limitation begins to run from the time the crime occurred, but for certain statutes of limitations, the time runs from when an awareness of the crime occurs. So there could be a lot of different facets to it.
If you’re dealing with something such as an investigation for a criminal charge, or have questions regarding statute limitations as it relates to something specific to you, you’re going to want to talk to a criminal defense attorney in Oklahoma privately and confidentially to get legal advice. To get that scheduled with somebody at my office and go online to makelaweasy.com.
