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Video Transcribed: You filed your McGirt motion or had your attorney file it, but now the DA’s office wants to fight it. What do you do?
My name is Ryan Cannonie, I am the Tahlequah criminal defense attorney for Wirth Law Firm in Tahlequah. I’ve seen this come up with my own clients.
I’ve talked to a ton of other attorneys where it’s happened. So, you file a post-conviction relief, if you’ve been convicted, or a motion to dismiss, if it’s still a pending, or a deferred sentence on a case. And all of a sudden the DA’s office wants to find it.
Now, I’ve seen this happen with the Cherokee Nation a whole lot, because the Cherokee Reservation, there are still court cases going on, the case still hasn’t come down.
So, a lot of times the DA’s offices, they’re fighting it in that there’s no decision on the Cherokee Reservation yet. So, they’re just postponing it. They’re continuing the hearing.
They’re filing kind of a template brief saying, here’s what we think on this. And then, continuing it from there. Basically, they’re just waiting for a decision to come down is where that is.
But some of these other cases I’ve heard about where you have Creek Nation members who are in the Creek Nation, that the DA’s offices are fighting.
Why would they do this, This is the question I get asked a lot.
Well, the reason for that is these McGirt motions are just that, they’re a motion, whether it’s a post-conviction relief, whether it’s that motion to dismiss.
Either way, they’re just a motion there, they’re requesting certain relief from the court. And just like any other motion, the other side can follow a response, can ask for a hearing, can ask that evidence be presented at that hearing, and can try to fight it.
And that’s what’s happening in some areas. Not all areas, not all cases, but that is happening. So, it’s something that people need to be aware of that just because you file these doesn’t mean it’s an automatic get out of jail or get rid of a conviction card here.
It could take some time. As it relates to the Cherokee Reservation, it could take a while because we’re hoping, fingers crossed that in February, we’ll hear something back on the Hogner case, but there’s no guarantee of that. Just like the original Murphy and McGirt cases when they went to the Supreme Court, those took years to get down.
No one knows when the Hogner case, or there’s another one also went up besides Hogner that we’ll find out about. No one knows. We’re all kind of hoping for February, but that may come and go without a decision.
So, on all of these motions, they could be put out there for ways. This isn’t something that no attorney can help you with. It’s just part of the process, and it’s not a pleasant process, but it’s part of the process.
If you have questions still about McGirt, post-conviction relief. If you have questions about the dismissals or anything like that, then please give us a call, go to our website, tahlequahattorney.com. Let us know, maybe we can help.
