Kelly Siegler is favored by many in law enforcement (check out copsforkelly). She’s an honest person with a proven record AS an assistant D.A.

Mark, you’re right about causing chaos. Within a month all 31 judges would be anti-state and plea bargaining might be out the window.

For one who never litigated, she sure made us try everything. Remember her 350 case backlogs?

“the Chron wants to redefine the role of DA in the mold of Dallas ‚Äì replace the adversarial nature with a system of two judges assisting the defense.”

Man I love a good dose of hyperbole in the morning.

I think a lot of ADA’s need to get out of their ivory towers and take a look at the real world.

Judges? Many of our judges have a decidedly pro-DA’s office inclination. You hadn’t noticed? Maybe that merits a blog post — in general terms, without naming names, of course.

Judge Rains, for all his many faults, does not have a pro-state bent: he treats everyone, as far as I can tell, equally crappily.

The ex-ADAs are no threat to me at all. The worriers say that an influx of ex-ADAs will be “like flood days”, with too many lawyers and too few cases.

I wouldn’t mind that — I had an excellent year after the flood.

If I had a volume practice, I might be worried about the prospect of a hundred or more ex-ADAs becoming defense lawyers in one year. But I don’t need more than three or four new clients a month to keep going; one or two are enough, most months. After the Next Flood, the clients will keep coming to see me, I’ll keep quoting them higher fees than the ex-ADAs, and some of them will keep hiring me instead of my less-expensive exprosecutorial brethren.

Consider also this: if a hundred people leave the DA’s office, not all of them will become criminal defense lawyers, but all of them will have to be replaced by other lawyers, some of whom are criminal defense lawyers already and some of whom might have become criminal defense lawyers.

Agenda, agenda, agenda.

I wasn‚Äôt shocked by the Chron’s endorsement of Lykos. She had a long record of light probations and adjudications as a judge. What they want is a complete change at the DA’s office. Forget about the recent unpleasantness; the Chron wants to redefine the role of DA in the mold of Dallas ‚Äì replace the adversarial nature with a system of two judges assisting the defense.

And, btw, you guys who are still trying to make a living in the defense business are out of your ever-loving minds if you think you’d be ok with a mass influx of ex-ADA’s into the profession.

Leitner can win as easily in the general as Lykos or Siegler or, for that matter, Perry. Face it: the winner of the DA’s race in November is going to be the nominee from the party that gets the most votes in Harris County. We’re not going to see Harris County voting for Obama and Lykos, nor for McCain and Bradford.

If Lykos wins, the judiciary will remain the same (except for the 174th, of course).If Bradford becomes DA, we’ll see a bunch of Republican incumbent judges out on their butts as well. It’ll be the end of business-as-usual at the Harris County courthouse; nobody can possibly predict how the dynamics will work out.

The behavior of the bench is, in my opinion, of much greater concern than the behavior of the DA’s office. Sure, the DA’s office is supposed to seek justice, but nobody really expects that, do they? Everyone expects the judiciary to be fair, which makes their misbehavior all the more insidious.

Hmmm, you’ve got a point there…..