Tulsa Criminal Defense Attorney | Your Best Choice | Cale Law Office
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Are you looking for the best Tulsa criminal defense attorney? For the best choice, contact the Cale law office at 918-277-4800. Schedule your free initial consultation with attorney Stephen Cale. His practice focuses on criminal defense. He has nearly two decades of experience and fights hard for his clients.
Prosecutors charged the defendant with first-degree murder. The jury sentenced him to death. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the conviction and sentence Beck for a new trial. Here are the facts of the case.
Someone motor Beck in November. Beck needed a cane for walking because he was partially paralyzed. Beck spent the night at his cousin’s house who was visiting a relative in Asia. The defendant state was Beck for a period of time.
A woman usually called Beck almost every day. She was concerned that the stranger admitted to her house while she was gone. When she called the man for the last time, he told her that he would ask the man to leave. The defendant clubbed back to death that day in the case party to a nearby field. He rummaged through the house looking for valuables.
The defendant then drove a pickup to Texas he had is within it stolen from the house. A few days later, the defendant shot an acquaintance, killing him. He broke into the house and ransacked it, taking other items. These items included two shotguns, a pistol, money, jewelry, and other property. He then went to a hotel in Texas.
Authorities found the body of one the victims in his home. Someone p.m. with a call hammer. They found it near his body. The victim’s ears had been mingled a person turn off. The attack severed one of his fingers. Someone shot them with a shotgun a close range.
The defendant later told authorities that he sold against in the money in Texas. When police found the shotguns, they still had blood on. They also found blood inside the stolen truck. One of the victim’s mother’s reported him missing the officer went to the house to look for him but cannot find him. Officers and a mobile crime lab to the scene to collect forensic evidence.
Later that month, please put a woman driving the victim’s car. The officer pulled the woman over. She told him that she bore the car from the man she met up ours. She gave police a description of the man told them that he was inside the club. Police found the man at the club. He turned out to be the defendant.
As officers transported the defendant, the past by stolen car. The defendant asked if the girl was speeding in his car. The ulcer asked if there was his car. The defendant replied that it was. The officer advised the defendant of his rights at the PlayStation. The defendant lied about how he acquired the car. Additionally, he consented to the search of his hotel room. At the hotel room, police found numerous stolen items. The defendant signed a statement implicating himself.
On appeal, the defendant argued that he should have a compensate trial. A competency hearing requires a jury trial. The defendant must ask for it. The right to jury trial on guilt or innocence in a felony criminal case is a constitutional right. The trial must be held as a jury trial unless the defendant waives that right. The constitutional right to a jury trial does not apply to every pretrial hearing in a criminal case. The right to have a jury trial on the issue of competency is a statutory right, not a constitutional one, said Tulsa criminal defense attorney Stephen Cale.
In Oklahoma, a judge presides over competency hearing in a criminal case was the defendant demands a jury trial. If the defendant does not demand a jury trial, the comps the hearing is trying to the judge, not to a jury. In this case, defendant first man the jury trial. However, it later withdrew the request.
The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals stated that the defendant (characterized the proceedings. The trial judge has the defense counsel if he objected to postponing the Royal competency. The judge wanted the defendant to be sent to the state hospital for treatment. The trial court ruling denying the commitment to treatment is consistent with this finding of competency. The appellate court said evidence supported this ruling was consistent with state statutes.
The defendant’s sister testified at the comps the hearing that the defendant frequently used false identities. The purpose of the comps the hearing is to determine whether the defendant has sufficient present ability to consult with his lawyer. He must do so with a reasonable degree of rational understanding. If he has a rational understanding as well’s factual understanding of the proceedings against him, then he is competent.
The defendant did not cite any cases that held that amnesia indicated a lack of compensating stand trial. Previous case law indicates the loss of memory does not in itself create a lack of compensation to stand trial. The present ability to remember the events surrounding the crime does not impair the defendant’s rational thought process. Therefore it is not incompetence.
In a death penalty case, a juror is required to be willing to consider all the penalties possible and not be committed to one or the other before the trial starts. On review, the court will look at the entire jury panel to determine the court properly excuse a juror for cause. Some prospective jurors stated they cannot impose the death penalty under any circumstance. One juror stated that although she did not oppose the death penalty, she cannot impose that punishment.
If you’re looking for aggressive legal representation, call Tulsa criminal defense attorney Stephen Cale at 918-277-4800. Attorney Stephen Cale has handled numerous jury trials. His experience includes trials involving murder cases. So, if you’re looking for an attorney has a fighter, call attorney Stephen Cale.