Tulsa Criminal Defense Attorney | Hammering the Prosecution | Cale Law Office
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If you’ve been charged with a serious felony, you need aggressive legal representation. Call Tulsa criminal defense attorney Stephen Cale at 918-277-4800. Your initial consultation with the Cale law office is free. Attorney Cale has nearly 20 years of experience as a lawyer. His practice focuses on criminal defense.
Prosecutors charged the defendant with felony murder. A jury found him guilty of second-degree felony murder and sentenced him to 23 years. Here’s a summary the facts of the case.
The defendant lived with his mother and sister and inability. Leaving in two friends were staying inside the house when two men pulled up to the house. The guy the car and walked towards the defendant. When the men were in prison. The defendant notice that when the men had a clue why. The man with one had raped his mother years before and serve time in prison for the crime. The defendant when inside told his mother that the man who raped her was standing in the yard.
The defendant’s mother came outside to confront her attacker. She asked him if he remembered her. He smiled and said he knew where he was. The defendant’s mother demanded that he leave. When he refused, and picked up forward and went toward the man. The man prepared if I that he saw a police officer coming by. The defendant’s mother explained to the man was, the officer made him leave. Transport that the defendant’s mother and told him he would be back in that he had something for them.
Sometime later, the defendant learned that the man was another house in town. He got a ride from a friend went to the location. As a got near the house, the defendant pulled that over his jacket covered his face with a bandanna. When they reach the house with a man was, the defendant leaned down and fired, therefore, shots fatally hitting the previous attacker. But it’s after the shooting, the defendant told to place in the interview that he was out of town with the shooting happened. At trial, the defendant admitted to the shooting. But he said that he killed the man because he was afraid he would come impact arms family.
On appeal, the defendant argued that the trial court erroneously failed to give the requested instruction on self-defense and defense of another. A jury instruction on self defense is required when evidence has been introduced the trial that is adequate to raise the defense, said Tulsa criminal defense attorney Stephen Cale. The Oklahoma court criminal appeals held that the fact that the defendant feared the attacker did not raise an issue self-defense or defense of another. That’s because the evidence showed that the defendant had no reasonable belief that he or his family were in imminent danger of being attacked or killed by the man at the time the defendant use deadly force.
In his second argument, the defendant argued that the trial court mistakenly excluded certain evidence offered by the defense that tend to show the victims I’m the character. The appellate court found no abuse of discretion. So he denied his claim. The defendant also claimed that prosecutorial misconduct denied him a fair trial. The Oklahoma Court of Criminal Appeals will reverse for prosecutes toward a misconduct where grossly improper and unwarranted argument affects the defendant’s rights. It found that the prosecutor’s comments were not improper.
Additionally, the defendant argued that his conviction for second-degree felony murder violated the merger doctrine. This is sometimes called independent chronic crime requirement. Even though state charged the defendant with first-degree malice aforethought murder, the trial court also instructed the jury on the lesser included offense of second-degree felony murder in the commission of using a vehicle. The jury acquitted the defendant first-degree murder but convicted him of second-degree murder in the commission of the underlying felony. The appellate court considered whether not was an error that goes to the foundation of the case for which based on the defendant a right which was essential to be a defense.
Under the merger doctrine or independent crime requirement, in order for the taking of human life the commission of a felony to constitute murder, the precedent felony must be constituted independent crime not included within the resulting homicide. The merger doctrine is a historical feature of case law, said Tulsa criminal defense attorney Stephen Cale. Is not based on any statutory or constitutional tax.
In the previous case, the defendant was a drug addict who gave birth at home. Blame on appeal was healthy, should take the baby home. Defendant also for the child welfare officials would take the baby from her to the hospital because of she of her cocaine use. There that evening, the baby looked pale and brings him shallow. The defendant knows blood in his diaper when she changed him. She calls her grandmother for advice and then tried some string around the previous and vocal cord should be fell sleep during the night, the baby wants to die for the umbilical cord due to the defendant’s failure to seek medical care.
The state charged the defendant with first-degree child abuse murder. The trial court also instructed the jury on the lesser included offense of second-degree murder in the commission of the underlying felony of child neglect. The jury convicted the defendant of the lesser offense. Based on the facts, the court found the merger doctrine required reversal of the murder conviction. It held that the felony charge for which the defense conviction is predicated was not separate from the act which causes the death. Therefore, the underlying felony merged into the homicide it cannot be used to sustain the second-degree felony murder conviction.
Tulsa criminal defense attorney Stephen Cale handles serious crimes, including jury trials involving murder and other serious felonies. For aggressive legal presentation, call the Cale law office at 918-277-4800 to schedule your free initial consultation.