This Is Where You Announce How You Want to Plea
Video Transcribed: Hi, I’m Ty Smith, an Oklahoma City area lawyer with Wirth Law and this is part three of my little tutorial walkthrough of the process of being convicted of a crime in Oklahoma.
Last time we talked a bit about the preliminary hearing and once more, that was only if you were being charged with a felony. But typically, regardless of felony or misdemeanor being charged with, you’ll always be put on what’s called the pretrial docket, which is where you and your attorney appear, and you announce how you want to plea.
If it’s guilty because you’ve spoken with your attorney and you don’t like your odds at trial, then the judge will either accept a plea or he’ll set it for a later date, a disposition date, a plea date, and he’ll accept it then. But not guilty, and we set it for trial.
Now, if you do take the guilty route, it’s followed on that one, that’s where it’s set for a later date. You and your attorney appear and you enter a plea of guilty, and the judge announces punishment based on whatever bargain you’ve cut with the district attorney. So there’s that.
Another option that’s not often pursued, but it happens sometimes, you can enter what’s called a blind plea. This is if you don’t want to take the plea bargain that maybe is on the table with the DA, or the DA hasn’t offered one, but you still want to enter a plea of guilty. With a blind plea or essentially throwing yourself at the mercy of the court, you are asking the judge to make the decision without trial just based on what you’ve seen so far.
Decide what you think is the best punishment, what do you think, should I be convicted? Should I not be? It’s a bit of a gamble. And once this blind plea is entered you can’t pull it out, you can’t withdraw it. So if you don’t like what the judge has decided for you, you’re kind of stuck with it. So you can see why it’s a bit of a big gamble, but for some people, it’s the best option.
Now if this sounds like, if this is a situation you’re going through or you know someone who’s going through this and has some questions about this process that I haven’t answered here today, please feel free to reach out and contact me, a criminal defense attorney in Oklahoma. I’m at theoklahomacityattorney.com, and I would be happy to speak with anyone about this process, and I would love to make this process as easy as possible for anyone going through it.
