What Is the Statute of Limitation for Crimes in Oklahoma?

All right. Oklahoma law, it’s pretty simple when it comes to the statute of limitations. Most or all of those are included within one Oklahoma statute. It is title 22, section 152, and it lists a lot of various crimes and what their statute of limitations is. And then it also has a catch-all statute of limitations for ones that are not specifically listed. Gets a little bit tricky in one area, and that is when does the statute of limitations begin to run? In most cases, it is the time when the crime occurred, but in some cases, it is when there became an awareness of the crime or when the crime was reported to law enforcement.

So what is it for the various crimes? I can go down that list. So for bribery, embezzlement, public money, and things along those lines, it’s either five or seven years depending on the specifics of it. For income tax, violation of income tax laws, it’s a five-year statute of limitations, and that’s five years from the date that the crime occurred. When we’re talking about sexual crimes against children, it has been lengthened. The current statute of limitations for crimes involving sex crimes against children is the 45th birthday of the victim.

Now, this has changed in recent years, so it brings an interesting issue, and that is which applicable law or which law is going to be applicable. So it’s, generally speaking, going to be the law that was in place at the time that the crime occurred. However, there may be an argument that if the statute of limitations for the statute that was in place at the time the crime occurred had not expired when there was an amendment in the statute may be able to bootleg in the new version. However, if the statute of limitations that was in place at the time the crime occurred has passed, but now there’s a new law that extends it, that may not be good enough. You might not be able to bootstrap that under those circumstances. But for any individual case, you’re going to want to talk to an attorney about that.

So if it’s a sex crime involving an adult, then it is 12 years after the discovery of the crime. But what do we mean by the discovery of the crime? Well, it’s defined in here, says discovery as it relates to this paragraph, which is important because discovery is defined differently for different ones in this same statute. But for this paragraph, discovery means the date that a physical or sexual related crime involving a victim 18 years of age or older is reported to law enforcement. So you could wait 20 years to report it, but then once it’s reported, then that starts the 12-year statute of limitations from that moment forward, this is another one that has been changed in recent years to be extended. So whether this version applies or a prior version is going to be a complicated legal endeavor to determine. You want to talk to an attorney about that specifically.

All right. There’s also an exception for DNA evidence, if this is a case where when the crime was reported, DNA evidence was given, but it wasn’t matched to anybody, but then it’s matched at a later time, there’s no statute of limitations on that under the statute. You can go back any amount of time. However, once the DNA does identify the perpetrator, then it starts a brand new statute of limitations of three years from that date in order to get that filed.

All right any crime that’s a violation of the Oklahoma Wildlife Conservation Code’s three-year statute of limitations. Workers’ comp fraud is three years after the discovery of the crime, or seven years, whichever occurs first. So you’ve got three years after the discovery of the crime so long as seven years have not passed since the date of the crime, the lesser of those two. That is the statute of limitations for criminal fraud under the worker’s compact.

All right. False or bogus check. So if you write a check knowing you don’t have that money in your account and then that bounces, that’s a bogus check, five years the state has to file that. Solicitation for murder. It’s seven years. But again, this is one where it’s based on seven years from the discovery of the crime, but the discovery of the crime is defined a little bit differently. It says, for the purposes of this subsection, discovery means the date upon which the crime is made known to anyone other than the person involved in the solicitation. So that seven years starts once anybody else is told, whereas previously when it related to sex crimes, discovery meant when it’s reported to law enforcement. So it’s a little bit different definition of discovery in the same statute.

Okay and then we’ve got an accessory after the fact. Any crime potentially could have a charge for accessory after the fact, and the statute of limitation is going to be the same as for the underlying crime for that. Arson is a seven-year statute of limitations. For pretty much any crime where a deadly weapon is used, it’s a seven-year statute of limitations. Human trafficking is a three-year statute of limitations, but it’s three years from the discovery of the crime. And here, the discovery of the crime means when the crime is reported to a law enforcement agency, that’s when the three years begin to run. So somebody could wait 20 years to report it to law enforcement and then once it’s reported, it’s three-year statute limitations. However, this is another one where there have been changes in the law where it’s been extended to allow that exception to have additional time. So which law is going to be applicable, is going to be dependent on an analysis that you need to go through with an attorney if you’re dealing with that issue.

All right, and then we have the catch-all. So if it’s not previously specifically listed, any other criminal misdemeanors, domestic violence, petty larceny, possession of CDS, pretty much anything else that was not specifically listed has a statute of limitations of three years and it’s three years from the crime occurring, not discovery of the crime. So those are the statute of limitations in Oklahoma.

If you’re dealing with a scenario where you want to know what might be applicable to your circumstances, whether you’re a victim of a crime, wanting to have criminal charges pursued, or whether you are a potential defendant, wanting to know if you still have this hanging over your head, you’re going to want to talk to a Tulsa criminal defense lawyer privately and confidentially about that. To schedule that with somebody in my office, you can go online to makelaweasy.com.