Tulsa Attorney Blog
Cultivation of Marijuana Is a Felony in the Muscogee (Creek) Nation
Attention Green Country growers: Cultivation of Oklahoma marijuana is a felony on the Muscogee Creek Reservation. I'm Tulsa Criminal attorney, James Wirth. We're about to talk about the Muscogee Creek Nation Code and how it deals with cultivation. So all of this is relevant because of the McGirt Decision that came out in June of 2020 where the United States Supreme Court held that the Muscogee Creek Tribal Reservation was never disestablished through Oklahoma Statehood. And what that means is that there's a good chunk of Northeast Oklahoma, including most of Tulsa County, and all of them, many of the surrounding counties, are actually part of the Muscogee Creek Tribal Reservation, and native Americans living in that area are going to be subject to the laws of the Muscogee Creek Nation, in addition to state law and federal law. Read more »What's Your Right to Speedy Trial in Muscogee (Creek) Tribal Court?
What is your right to a speedy trial in the Muscogee Creek Nation Tribal Court? Tulsa Attorney, James Wirth has that answer. Read more »Is First Offense of Possession of Marijuana in Oklahoma a Felony?
There Is a Risk for a Felony If You Are a Tribal Member, Any Tribal Member, and You Are Possessing on Muskogee (Creek) Reservation Land. Read more »Are Landlords Renting to Growers in NE Oklahoma Committing a Felony?
Attention landlords renting to growers here in Northeast, Oklahoma. You're going to want to know what the Muscogee Creek Nation code says about your circumstances. I'm Tulsa attorney James Wirth, and we're about to talk about that. This all starts with the McGirt decision from the United States Supreme Court coming down in June 2020, and what it said is that the Muscogee Creek Nation reservation was never disestablished through Oklahoma statehood. This means a lot of the land in Northeast, Oklahoma, including most of Tulsa County and all of many of the surrounding counties, is all reservation land subject to the jurisdiction of the Muscogee Creek Nation. Now the Muscogee Creek Nation is a sovereign entity. It does not recognize, necessarily the OMMA and licensing and all of those things, so we've got to look at what the code for the tribe says to see if this may be applicable to you. Read more »Statute of Limitation for Criminal Charges in Muscogee (Creek) Nation Tribal Court
If you're in a circumstance where you are Native American, were you were tried in state court for a crime that occurred on what we now know is reservation land, you're going to want to know the statute of limitations in the tribal court to see if you get your case dismissed and reversed, whether they can still charge you in the tribal court. So that's why we want to look at the statute of limitations for the tribe. Read more »DUI Is Never a Felony in Muscogee (Creek) Nation Tribal Court
US Supreme Court in McGirt found the Muscogee Creek original reservation was not disestablished and it comes with a chunk of NE Oklahoma. Read more »Is Possession of Drugs a Felony in Muscogee (Creek) Nation Tribal Court?
Most of Northeast Oklahoma, including most of Tulsa County and all of many of the surrounding counties, is all part of the Muskogee Creek Tribal Reservation, which means that native Americans, whether they're members of that tribe or any other tribe, are going to be subject to criminal filings against them for crimes that occur in that area. Because of that, we're looking at the differences between state law and tribal law now that we're about to see a lot more cases in tribal court, as we're seeing a lot of cases thrown out of state court. One of the more interesting ones is possession of drug paraphernalia. Read more »Murder by Sleeping? One Reason Some Are Happy About McGirt Decision
Oklahoma has one of the highest incarceration rates in the nation. It was actually number one for women and number one for men for a period of time. Now I believe we're down to number two in the nation for prison population. There are many reasons that go into that, but I've got an example of a case that gets you an idea on why some people are happy that the McGirt decision came out and divested the state courts with authority to charge certain Indians for crimes in Northeast, Oklahoma. Read more »Is McGirt Going to Effect Deprived Child Cases in Oklahoma?
In a child deprived case, that is where the state of Oklahoma or another government entity has taken children out of the home, put them into state or governmental custody in order to protect them from parents who have deprived them, and Indian law has always been a big deal in deprived child cases in Oklahoma, even though when CPS, Child Protective Services, DH, Department of Human Services, even when they start their investigations, that's one of the first thing they're looking into is are these Indian children? Is this family a member of a tribe? Are they eligible to be a member of a tribe? Because ICWA applies, Indian Child Welfare Act applies, and that brings in Federal Law that greatly changes how the cases are affected. Read more »McGirt and the Cascading Impact of Its Precedent
Let's touch on the jurisdiction. So this case only deals with the Muscogee Creek Nation, right? So I've got that here in green. That's the territory that includes most of Tulsa, all of Okmulgee, surrounding counties. We're talking about McIntosh, Creek County, Wagoner County, Muskogee County, Okfuskee County, McIntosh County. The green space there, that's all that we're talking about. So the case technically for precedent purposes is limited here, but all of the five civilized tribes there, Cherokee tribe, the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Seminole, they all had very similar treaties, 1866 treaties. They were all similarly treated when Oklahoma became a state. So although the McGirt decision doesn't directly apply precedent, if you apply the same rules that were applied in McGirt to the other tribes, it's going to show that they were not disestablished either. So now suddenly we've gone from that green area to most of Northeast Oklahoma for all the colored areas here. And although it's not binding precedent, it's going to be next to impossible to say they should be treated differently. Read more »McGirt Expungement: New Path to Sealing Criminal Records for Tribal Members
The McGirt v Oklahoma decision from the US Supreme court greatly expanded the current understanding of what tribal reservation is in Northeast Oklahoma, so that most of Northeast Oklahoma is reservation land. That divested the state court in prosecuting tribal members for crimes occurring in that territory and non-tribal members for crimes against tribal members or Indians. Most of those cases are subject to be vacated, to go away, and a lot of the current cases are being dismissed and moved off to either tribal court or to federal court. Read more »What Is the Murphy/McGirt Agreement-In-Principle?
So the Attorney General of Oklahoma has released a document entitled the Murphy McGirt agreement in principle, where he claims that there's been some outlines on what a proposal would be for congressional legislation to resolve some of the issues with the aftermath of the McGirt decision. So in the McGirt decision, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Muskogee Creek nation was never disestablished when Oklahoma statehood came, and therefore most of Tulsa and the surrounding counties are still on Muskogee Creek reservation. That decision equally applies, or at least the rationale for doing that, equally applies to all five civilized tribes in Oklahoma, which means that most of Northeast Oklahoma is now considered to be and to have always have been reservation land, although we didn't know it until this decision. Read more »Statute of Limitation for Federal Prosecution of Crimes Dismissed Under McGirt Precedent
McGirt v Oklahoma held that the Muskogee Creek nation was never disestablished, which means that most of Tulsa and surrounding counties are actually tribal reservation land, where the state lacked subject matter jurisdiction to prosecute Indians or crimes committed against Indians. Read more »McGirt Ruling: Who Prosecutes What In Northeast Oklahoma Now?
United States Supreme Court in the Mcgirt Case on July 9th of 2020 Decided the Muskogee Creek Nation Reservation of the Treaty of 1866 Was Never Disestablished When Oklahoma Became a State Read more »How To Determine If A Crime Victim Is "Indian" Under McGirt Decision
How do you determine if a victim is an Indian under the McGirt Precedent in Oklahoma? I'm Oklahoma attorney James Wirth and we're about to talk about how to find out if a victim of a crime is an Indian, as it relates to the law. This is all dealing with, again, the McGirt decision that is having huge ramifications in Oklahoma, regarding jurisdiction of state courts to prosecute people. I'm in the McGirt case, the court found that the 1866 boundaries of the Muskogee Creek Nation were never disestablished when Oklahoma became a state. So, that all, almost all of Tulsa County and surrounding counties are still reservation land and that same precedent applied to the remainder of the Five Civilized Tribes, means that most of Northeast Oklahoma is actually Indian territory, which means that the state has limited jurisdiction to charge people. What the Major Crimes Act says, is that for crimes committed on tribal land, by Native Americans or Indians, that the state court has no jurisdiction over them. For crimes committed against Indians on tribal land, reservation land, the state government has no jurisdiction over them. It has to be charged in federal court. Read more »Are You an "Indian" for the Purpose of the McGirt Precedent?
First off, you need to be a member or be able to show that you are recognized as a member of a tribe by an Indian tribe or by the federal government. And second, you also have to show some degree of Indian blood, and that's based on the test in the case of Prentiss, back from 2001, and it determined that both of those factors have to be met. If the other side of the state can prove that one of those is not met, then you're not an Indian as it's described in the Act and the state does have the authority to prosecute you for offenses. Read more »What Are the Major Crimes From the Major Crimes Act of 1885?
Crimes not in the Major Crimes Act were not involved in the McGirt case or in the Murphy case, the precedent set in the McGirt case that the tribal boundaries from 1866 were never disestablished triggers another list of crimes, which means that for anybody charged with those crimes in Northeast Oklahoma, the part that's now considered reservation land, if it's not under the Major Crimes Act, that means it must be charged in federal court, it still can't be charged in state court, has to be charged in tribal court. Read more »Hey Cannabis Business Owners! Did McGirt Decision Just Outlaw Marijuana in Half of Oklahoma?
July 9th of 2020, the US Supreme Court made an opinion in the McGirt case that found that the Northeast half of Oklahoma is actually tribal land. It's actually part of a tribal reservations from the five tribes How does that affect medical marijuana businesses and medical marijuana itself in Oklahoma? There's still some debate on that. There's a lot of people that say it's not going to have any effect at all. There's a lot of people that are screaming that it changes everything. Read more »Monumental Supreme Court Case Changes Oklahoma Forever: How Will McGirt Effect You?
The United States Supreme Court entered a decision that is probably the most monumental decision ever to affect the state of Oklahoma. It has to do with the Muscogee Creek tribe and its reservation. Essentially, what it found is that the tribal reservation is way more expansive than previously thought. In fact, it actually encompasses most of Northeast Oklahoma putting much of the state, including 1.8 million of its residents inside the jurisdictional boundaries of the Muscogee Creek Nation reservation. Read more »U.S. Supreme Court’s Indian Country Ruling Sets Stage for Mass Expungement of Criminal Convictions
Historic Decision Overturns State Jurisdiction The U.S. Supreme Court’s July 9 decision in McGirt v. Oklahoma set in motion legal controversies that state, tribal and federal authorities might not resolve for years or even decades to come. Among the most immediate controversies that may emerge is whether tribal members convicted in Oklahoma courts of crimes […] Read more »Hey Tribal Members with Convictions: Supreme Court Opened the Door to Possible Conviction Reversal
Muscogee Creek Nation reservation of 1833 was never disestablished through Oklahoma statehood. And what that means is that a huge area of Northeast Oklahoma that's been operating like it's the state of Oklahoma is actually part of the Creek Nation reservation. And I've got a map here to show where those boundaries are approximately. So we're talking most of Tulsa County, including the city of Tulsa, except for a small portion on the north side, but also other counties as well. So we've got Creek County, Wagner part, a small part of Rogers County and Mayes County, Muskogee County, all of Okmulgee County, McIntosh, Okfuskee, and other areas of Oklahoma. Now, based on the United States Supreme Court decision, are actually reservation land to the Muscogee Creek Nation. And what that means is that the state of Oklahoma lacked jurisdiction to charge tribal members with crimes that were allegedly committed in that area. They lack that jurisdiction. Never should have charged them, even though they've been doing it for 100 years, and can't do so now according to this decision. Read more »What is the Automatic Temporary Injunction in Oklahoma Divorce Cases?
In Oklahoma, when you file for a divorce, you've got to serve notice over to the other side with a summons, and attached to that summons, by Oklahoma law, is going to be notice of an automatic temporary injunction, and that injunction automatically goes in effect to the petitioner when they file it, and it goes into effect as to the respondent when it is served upon them. And it basically requires that things maintain the status quo, that you go about the normal course of business. Read more »How to Get Legal Service of Process in Oklahoma
Any time a pleading is filed, a petition is filed, it's got to be served on the other party if it's a civil petition and pleading. And then once it's served, that starts the timeline by which, and the deadline by which, they need to file a response. If no response is filed, you can request the judge enter a default order, granting what you want without hearing from the other side. So to start all that off, to start that timeline, you have to have proper service. Read more »Three Things Your Attorney Would Love You to Do at the Beginning of Your Case
The first one is a timeline and I call it a narrative timeline. And I would tell my clients, I want you to type up a narrative timeline of all the relevant issues in this case, in chronological order, paragraph form. Each paragraph begins with the date and time and what occurred on that day. And then we go to the next one and we go back all the way to the beginning of when this is relevant. And then it gets more detailed as it's more current. So we may start on, the parties met on this date, if we're talking about a divorce or custody. That they began living together this date, they got in a marriage this date. And then, as we get closer in time, we'll want more specifics regarding those things. So the more serious the event, the more specifics. The closer in time, the more specifics we want. But all of it, we want typed up, paragraph form in chronological order. And in that timeline for anything that's relevant, we want to talk about who witnessed it and you want put those parties names in there. Read more »Tips for Utilizing a Parenting Coordinator in Oklahoma
Statements made to a Parenting Coordinator are not confidential. This is not an attorney client relationship that you have. So anything you tell the Parenting Coordinator, you better expect that it could be made in a report that's published in the court file which could be open to the general public. So that's got to be known. Read more »
