Defending People

Here’s a little Thursday afternoon regalito for my fellow Texas Criminal Defense lawyers:
Often the State will lie behind the log in closing arguments, waiving its “right” to open the argument and saving all of its arguments for after the defense has made its argument. (For the laypeople reading this: when the State does this it [...]

In Texas, there is a statute that says that a defendant will have a jury trial unless both the State and the defendant agree not to have a jury trial. Prosecutors, many judges, and some defense lawyers sometimes say that the State has a “right” to a jury trial.
Another statute says that, when arguing a [...]

A good traveler has no fixed plans
and is not intent upon arriving.
A good artist lets his intuition
lead him wherever it wants.
A good scientist has freed himself of concepts
and keeps his mind open to what is.
Thus the Master is available to all people
and doesn’t reject anyone.
He is ready to use all situations
and doesn’t waste anything.
This is [...]

A lawyer is in court with his client. The prosecutor has made a plea offer to the lawyer, who thought it was something the client should have accepted. The lawyer has conveyed the offer to the client, and tried to convince him to take it. The client has rejected the offer.
Often we will see the [...]

Some people believe that we are where we are and have what we have mainly because of the choices we’ve made.
Others believe that we are where they are and have what we have, ultimately, because of things beyond our control — nature and nurture for example, or good fortune, or the grace of God.
Most people [...]

A first-time offender should not go to prison if he couldn’t legally have been shot and killed if caught in the act. (This is not, of course, to say that everyone who could have been shot and killed if caught in the act should go to prison.)
This principle makes sense to me because it reserves [...]

A friend who’s a great criminal defense lawyer in Collin County (and a former public defender and, before that, a former prosecutor) read my blog and asked me for permission to “steal” some of my writing for his website.
My first reaction was that my ideas aren’t my protected property. After all, lawyers copy each other’s [...]

When a potential client comes in, charged with his first misdemeanor, and says, “I did what they’ve accused me of. They’ve got me. I don’t have any defense. I just want to plead guilty and take probation,” I will generally tell him something like this:
If that’s what you want, you should probably hire someone else. [...]