Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

First of all, our clients charged with crimes are presumed innocent. Everyone deserves a defense, whether that person appears to be guilty or not. No person is legally guilty unless they have been proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt by a jury, or have entered a plea of guilty that has accepted by a judge.

Without criminal defense attorneys, the accused would be left to the mercy of the State of Oklahoma, who know nothing more about our clients than what is alleged in police reports. Defending the constitutional rights of our clients is a privilege and a duty that every attorney in this office takes seriously.

Yes. Our attorneys graduated from law school and passed the same bar exam as other lawyers. Many of the attorneys in our office were partners in law firms before becoming public defenders.

No. The District Attorney’s Office, or the prosecutor, is the State—they try to convict our clients. Our job is to defend our clients from them.

Our salary is controlled by the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Our attorneys are on a salary, and we are paid the same every month, no matter how many cases we are assigned and no matter what the outcome of those cases may be. We receive no particular benefit from working out a deal or from going to trial. Our pay approximates that of district attorneys.

There are many reasons people apply for the opportunity to work at this office, including: belief in the Constitution and the idea that every person’s rights deserve to be protected; a desire to spend a career practicing law without having to worry about clients’ ability to pay; and the solidarity that comes from working with a group of people dedicated to the highest principles of the law and of compassion.

When a child is the subject of deprived or delinquent proceedings, the child is entitled to his or her own attorney.  The Juvenile Division of the Tulsa County Public Defender’s Office is appointed to represent children in the same way that our attorneys represent adult clients.

When we represent a child in these proceedings, we do not have any attorney-client relationship with that child’s parents. This means we ethically cannot have parents present when we have confidential communications with our client. We will not release information from our files to a parent. We cannot tell a parent what a child has told us in confidence.

It’s frustrating and unusual for a parent not to be consulted in matters involving their children. But the law requires us in both delinquent and deprived proceedings that we serve the expressed interests of that child (what the child says the child wants) unless this is not possible under very narrow circumstances.

In a deprived case, if a child is preverbal or otherwise unable to communicate with his or her attorney in a meaningful way, we are tasked with formulating and presenting an opinion which serves the best interests of our client.  Otherwise our attorneys are legally and ethically obligated to pursue the results our clients request.

In delinquent cases, we are legally and ethically obliged to advise and advocate the expressed wishes of the child as much as reasonably possible under the same ethical obligation as an adult client.

In both types of cases, this often means that we will take a position in court that is not what a parent wants.  But the child is our client, and we perform our duties based on our client’s best interests.

All criminal defendants are entitled to appeal a sentence. The appeals process will begin almost immediately after sentencing when the trial attorney files paperwork to start the appellate process.

The entire appellate process can take up to a year or longer from the date of sentencing to obtain an opinion from the Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals. This is due to the time it takes to obtain transcripts of the trial proceedings, obtain  copies of all court documents, and then allow both parties to file briefs in court.

Usually not. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals usually decides cases based on the document record before it.