If you have been charged with marijuana trafficking here in Oklahoma City, it’s important that you contact a drug crime lawyer as quickly as possible. This is a very serious charge with concerning consequences, and your best bet at protection comes with having a qualified criminal defense lawyer on your side as quickly as possible.
How Can a Drug Crime Lawyer Help in an Oklahoma City Marijuana Trafficking Case?
The first thing to know is that none of these cases are one-size-fits-all. Every case is unique, and thus every case requires personalized help from someone with extensive experience and knowledge of Oklahoma’s drug laws. Someone with criminal defense experience will be able to build you a strategically viable case and give you the best defense possible. And because each case is unique, it’s impossible to say here exactly what defenses will be the best ones to use in your case, but there are some that are particularly common and which your lawyer may explore:
Police Error
In some cases, the police do something they shouldn’t at some point during an arrest. Maybe they did not read you your rights or continued to question you after you have told them that you wanted to speak with a lawyer. Or, maybe, the police did not handle the evidence appropriately, which could lead to accusations of tampering.
Your lawyer will take a very close and careful look at everything the police did, and your lawyer has the ability to require the police to turn over things like body cam footage and records of what was done with the evidence. If your lawyer can prove the police did not do things on the way they should, this can go a long way towards mitigating the consequences of your charge. In some cases, it may even be possible to get the charges dismissed altogether.
Insufficient or Illegally Obtained Evidence
In Oklahoma, you can be hit with a trafficking charge if you have more than 25 pounds of marijuana, if you have been accused of having this much or more marijuana in your possession, the prosecution will need to show evidence that there was 25+ pounds marijuana and also that it belonged to you.
Your lawyer will investigate both aspects for to look for ways that you can be defended against the charge. For example, if the police did not have a warrant to search your home but did anyway without probable cause or for other reasons that can be challenged in court, this may protect you. Your lawyer will work hard to challenge the evidence when appropriate to make it more difficult for the prosecution to prove a case for trafficking.
Plea Bargaining and Reduced Charges
Depending on the specifics of the situation, your lawyer may also be able to strike some kind of deal with the prosecution for a lower or a different charge. This is especially possible when there is not a lot of good evidence and the prosecution would rather make a deal to have you plead guilty to a lesser charge than attempt to bring a stronger trafficking charge only to lose in court.
Your lawyer can tell you whether this is a possible option in your case, and you definitely want a lawyer negotiating your plea deal rather than trying to do it on your own. The prosecution will happily take advantage of your ignorance of the law and inexperience in negotiations to give you a deal that benefits them and not you. Your lawyer will make sure that any deal you accept is fair and reasonable under the circumstances.
Other Things Your Lawyer Can Do for You
Help You Understand the Law and Your Situation
If you’ve been arrested for any crime, you can’t expect the police or the prosecution to be interested in helping you understand your rights or the best way to defend yourself. Quite the opposite.
Your lawyer is someone on your side, with a thorough understanding of the law. Your lawyer will know exactly how the laws apply in the circumstances of your case and will be able to give you sound advice and direction for achieving the best possible outcome under the circumstances.
Make Sure You’re Treated Fairly
As mentioned before, you can’t expect the prosecution or the police to be interested in helping you understand your rights. You need someone on your side who will fight to make sure you’re treated fairly from the start. Just you having a lawyer at all will often make the other side more careful in how they treat you.
Get All the Evidence
You need access to all the evidence that’s going to be used against you in order to build a strategic defense. However, the prosecution is not always anxious to turn over all their evidence in the hopes that they can pressure an accused person into making a plea deal or even pleading guilty. Your lawyer knows the laws and how to get the courts involved as necessary to get all the evidence in good time to build a strong case.
Take Some Weight Off Your Shoulders
Being arrested for a crime is always highly stressful, and one of the things your lawyer will do for you is to take some of the stress off your shoulders. You don’t have to worry about every aspect of your defense personally. Your lawyer will take care of all the legal details and red tape and will ensure that everything is filed on time and in the correct way.
Help You Make a Good Impression
When you go to court, it’s important that you make a good impression, and one of the great benefits of having an attorney is that your attorney knows what the court is looking for and what will allow you to put your best foot forward.
Your lawyer will help you if you need to give testimony, coaching you on what to say and what kind of questions are going to be asked of you. In many cases, it’s best that you not give testimony at all, and your lawyer will help you to understand how to behave in the court even if you’re not speaking or directly answering questions.
Help You Make the Right Decisions
Should you take a plea deal? Should you plead guilty or not guilty? Should you try to bring an appeal? Should a certain person be asked to testify for you or not? These are just a few of the decisions you may at some point face in the course of your case, and there are many others. Your attorney is your personal legal advisor who can help you understand both the short-term and long-term consequences of any decision and make the best ones for your future.
If you or someone you love has been charged with marijuana trafficking, you can’t get a lawyer too soon. You need someone on your side with experience in Oklahoma criminal law, and specifically in drug cases. Contact us right now at Cannon & Associates in Oklahoma City to talk about your case. We’re your Fierce Advocates® in family and criminal law.