National Politics

Other blawgs aspire to be apolitical.
Not Defending People.
Everything we do is about politics — the way groups make decisions. There is nothing more political than trying to convince twelve jurors that we have the right side of a dispute. Seen up close, trial lawyering is pure politics.
On a slightly larger scale, we deal with the [...]

Happy Anniversary Friends

Scott Greenfield’s Simple Justice blog just celebrated its one-year anniversary. Anne Reed’s Deliberations celebrated its anniversary on Saturday.
I had a blog back in 2004-2005, when the blawgosphere was young. I posted 17 times between August 2004 and June 2005. Then I quit, figuring that this “blogging” thing would never catch on.
When I resumed blogging in [...]

“Just” a DWI Jury Trial?

Scott’s condescending attitude toward DWI trials had me thinking this week:
Hey, after I get out of my DWI trial I should maybe write something about the importance of DWI trials.
So here I am on the other side of another DWI trial.
DWI cases aren’t beneath the dignity of any criminal defense lawyer in Texas that I [...]

Me and Buford on the Teevee

More public access TV stuff: Drugs, Crime and Politics with retired South Texas College of Law prof Buford Terrell.

Picked a Jury Today

DWI — total refusal with no accident, but driving facts include alleged flight from the police (a felony, with which he would undoubtedly have been charged if the cop were not making it up).
Unusual jury demographics for Harris County:

A 29-year-old hispanic male waste company driver;
A 50-year-old black female loan closing manager;
A 63-year-old retired white lady [...]

Chron is Clueless Again

The Houston Chronicle editorial board has endorsed Pat Lykos for DA. The column endorsing her regurgitates her campaign soundbites — basically, she sold herself to them. There’s a lot of empty air in Lykos’s campaign promises. In fact, they are almost 100% empty air. But the Chronicle editorial board doesn’t understand the criminal “justice” system [...]

More Public Information from HCSO

The Harris County Sheriff’s Office responded to my email request for “all documents related to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office’s email retention policy, including emails and other correspondence discussing the policy and changes to the policy [for the time period from January 9, 2008, through January 18, 2008].”
Here are the 24 pages of email they [...]

Take Two Aspirin But . . .

If it is before noon and a weekday, I am probably chugging along at either the Harris County Criminal “Justice” Center or the Houston federal courthouse. If I’m not in trial, I’m taking notes on a file, or negotiating with a prosecutor, or investigating, or filing stuff.
If you call me, I will probably answer the [...]

Let the Government Clean Up its own Mess

Scott Greenfield has an interesting pair of recent posts: The Conflicted World of Assigned Counsel and today’s Rebirth of the Megatrial.
In the first, Scott argues that New York’s appointed counsel system was not intended to, and should not, provide livings for criminal defense lawyers:

[T]here should never have been an 18b bar to begin with. It [...]

Jury Trial Today

I went down to JP Court on the beach in Galveston County this morning, not really expecting to have to try a case. So of course there were 24 potential jurors waiting in the courtroom when I strolled in (I was 20 minutes late because I didn’t factor the ferry ride into my travel time), [...]

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