Understanding Second or Subsequent Offenses in Oklahoma
Hi, this is Stuart Ericson, Wagoner County attorney. Today we’re going to talk about second or subsequent offenses and convictions. So this has to do with punishment. So if you have one prior felony conviction and you get charged again, the state of Oklahoma will file a page two or a supplemental information.
So what that means is, is page one is you are charged with this crime, say burglary first degree. The supplemental or page two would make an allegation that, hey, you are previously convicted of a felony in 2020. You were convicted of this offense and you were given five years. What this means is it’s going to affect your future punishment if convicted, either with plea bargain perhaps or after a jury trial.
Punishment Ranges for Second Offenses
With one prior felony conviction and a new offense committed, if your prior offense was a violent offense under Oklahoma law, then your punishment range now becomes 10 to life. If it’s not a violent offense and your, your the previous offense exceeded five years, then your new punishment range is two to life. If it’s less than less than five years as a punishment, your new punishment range would be up to 10 years.
If there are two or more prior felony convictions, again, that will be alleged on the page two or supplemental information. Page one again is going to be your, your the new charges against the person. If the prior offenses were violent and then your new punishment range becomes, becomes 20 to life. If it wasn’t violent, then it could be three times the minimum to life or four years to life. Again, it just depends upon what the new crime is, what the old crimes were and the past convictions importantly have to be within the last 10 years since the completion of your old sentences.
Why You Need an Attorney
Prior felony convictions can have very serious consequences to future punishments. And that’s why in Oklahoma, when you plead guilty to a crime, to a felony, your plea of guilty summary of facts, the paperwork you fill out in order to constitute a plea kind of warns you of that fact. So, Hey, this could increase punishment in future cases. So that’s very important.
So all, all of these are very fact specific. And of course they have to prove the prior conviction was you. They actually do have to prove that even though, you know, it’s got your name on it. There are cases of mistaken identity. So they would have to prove probably, you know, name, social security number, all these other sorts of things. There’s what they’d have to present some proof that it is actually you that has that prior felony conviction. So you’ll need an attorney to understand all of this stuff to help guide you as always to determine do we fight this case all the way to jury trial? Do we do a plea bargain and how do we negotiate with some of these prior convictions and the like? So all of these questions you would need to ask your attorney.
So if you have more questions about prior felony convictions and how that might affect a current case, reach out to me, a criminal defense attorney in Wagoner, Oklahoma, Stuart Ericson at Wagonerlawyer.com.
