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An outstanding warrant in Oklahoma is a formal judicial document that orders the police to apprehend a person accused of a crime and bring him before the court so that criminal proceedings can be initiated against him. No different from an active warrant, an outstanding order for arrest is just a legal order that has stayed in the police database because it could note served for one or another reason.

The criminal procedure of Oklahoma starts at the point of arrest and goes on till a sentence is delivered in the matter that a person is being accused of. Although the trial procedure is uniform through most states, as long as the federal law and constitutional statutes that protect an individual’s right to freedom are not compromised on, some variances are allowed.

For the collection, maintenance and dissemination of criminal history data, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation forged the Information Services Department in 1991. This division maintains a central database of criminal history information collected from various law enforcement and justice agencies across the state.

The Oklahoma Court system comprises of an apex tribunal called the Supreme Court, the Court of Criminal Appeals which is considered the last resort tribunal for all criminal cases, an intermediate appellate court that handles civil matters and 77 district courts. Apart from this the judicial system also includes administrative offices which offer support to all tribunals in the state judicial system.

The two courts of last resort

Title 22 of the Oklahoma Statutes which is known as the criminal procedure lays down the law for the issue of an arrest warrant in response to a verified complaint. Section 171 of the title states that when a complaint that is verified by oath whether in the form of a witness testimony or a written affidavit of probable cause is presented before the court and if the magistrate of the tribunal is satisfied by this information of the offense indeed being committed and the involvement of the accused in it, he should issue a warrant of arrest