Defending People

How would you measure the success of the “War on Drugs?”
A DEA agent I know who has been fighting this “war” for more than 20 years has an answer: compare the quantity and price of drugs on the street now with the quantity and price of drugs on the street now. By this measure, he [...]

In my survey of Houston criminal defense lawyers’ advertising, I’ve noticed that not many women’s websites pop up. Now, I know that Houston has lots of great lawyers who are women, and I wonder why they don’t turn up in Google and Yahoo searches. At any rate, here are three:
Rosa Eliades
Melissa Martin
Lisa Benge and Judy [...]

For years my advice to people looking for a criminal defense lawyer has been this: “find someone that you can trust, and then find a way to pay him or her.” Since I started saying that publicly, lots of other criminal defense lawyers have put up websites suggesting that you should trust them for one [...]

A Houston Police Department homicide detective wrote the following in the report of the investigation of a shooting death:
I knew [the accused] had an attorney, but he never invoked his rights and as a thorough investigator I thought I would at least try to talk to [him] and I also knew the booking information needed [...]

The closest thing to a thought crime that we have in America today is a federal drug conspiracy.
A conspiracy, generally, is an agreement to commit a crime. The crime itself (the “substantive offense”) does not have to be committed for the conspiracy to be formed.
For most offenses, people cannot be convicted of conspiracy unless one [...]

I still see criminal defense lawyers who used to be prosecutors advertising their time with the DA’s office as though it provides a benefit to their clients. Their argument runs something like this:
First, it’s better to have someone defending you who knows what attack to expect. Second, former prosecutors generally have more trial experience. [...]

Sometimes I browse other lawyers’ websites to see what’s out there. It looks like some of these folks are spending a lot of money on fancy advertising; their websites make my websites, Bennett & Bennett and Fight the Feds, look . . . homemade. Should I spend some money on having a professional design and [...]

A local criminal court judge said to me, “I could never do what you do [that is, defend the accused]. I’m not creative enough.”
It is true that defending people well requires creativity. It also requires imagination, curiosity, flexibility, adaptability, and a willingness to take risks. In other words, it takes a childlike mind. A defense [...]

Monica Goodling, Alberto Gonzales’s White House Liaison, has chosen to plead the Fifth rather than testify before Congress. This is good news. When a highly-placed Department of Justice official, who knows exactly how the system works, avails herself of her constitutional right to remain silent, it sets a good example for the rest of us.
Goodling’s [...]

The Brownsville Herald had an article last Thursday about a proposed bill to allow felony prosecutors to bring concealed weapons to court. The notion came about because of unfounded fears that a violent gang would try to break one of its members out from the courthouse during his sentencing.
Like any policy decision made based on [...]