Comments on: Also Heard at the Courthouse

By: S.O.

S.O. — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 15:54:43 +0000

Hello,

My question is. As part of Cuellar v State of Texas, quotes the Art 42.12 in Criminal Code as “..who shall thereafter be released from all penalties and disabilities resulting from the offense or crime of which he has been convicted or to which he has pleaded guilty..”

So in this regard, how exactly can ANY items be tacked on after the fact. In that case for example,. the gentleman was attempting to get a CHL, but was denied due to a previous Deferred Adjudication. The Court of Criminal Appeals found that the Fourth Courts decision of the defendant not being found guilty as not erred. This being the case, how exactly can the State enact the Sex Offender registry on those that received and completed DA’s if in fact the law states that all penalties and disabilities will be removed if they are due to the original charge.

No attorney will answer this for me, and I have sort of hit a wall on finding any answers on this.

Thanks,

By: Cat

Cat — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:55:59 +0000

My former (and since disbarred) attorney fed me the whole “you won’t have a felony conviction on your record” line. At some point during my probation term it dawned on me that even if the felony conviction wouldn’t be on my record – the arrest, charge/indictment, and sentence would probably remain…

Looking back, even if I’d known the whole truth – I would still have accepted the deferred sentence. Losing my right to vote, own a gun, etc. was/is the bigger issue for me personally.

By: Brendan Kelly

Brendan Kelly — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:33:28 +0000

Back when I did Immigration Law I cleaned up (as best I could) from a lot of similar “advice”. We spent months (and a lot of client’s money) trying to find a way to move heaven and earth to keep a guy who had taken such “advice” from a criminal defense attorney from getting sent back to Iran. What with him having uncles who had been part of an anti-Khomeni coup attempt, he felt it was rather unhealthy for him to return to the land of his birth.

Perhaps the worst such advice I remember hearing about was given to lots of defendants back in the late 70s and throughout the 80s. Criminal Defendants from Vietnam (and Cambodia) were apparently told by their Defense Attorney “Go ahead and take the plea. It’s OK because they can’t deport you…we don’t have diplomatic relations with Vietnam.”

So the Defendant would take the plea, the attorney would pocket the fee, and the INS would enter an order of deportation…and then promptly relase the Defendant on parole, as there was no way to deport him as the USA and Vietnam did not have diplomatic relations. (They couldn’t just hold the guy in jail forever, at least not back then.)

All was fine and good for several years, till on July 11, 1995 – President William J. Clinton announces “normalization of relations” with Vietnam, and the INS goes back to all those old Deportation Orders, dusts them off, and starts picking people up for things they did almost 20 years ago.

Considering that these were often people, or the children of people, who had fled Vietnam because they had helped us during the war, and therefore had a very good reason to fear returning to Vietnam, this was not a good thing…

By: Malum In Se

Malum In Se — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 03:00:24 +0000

I hear the same thing everyday. I tell my clients that this is also not automatic. In our jurisdiction once you complete your probationary period you must file a motion to have the matter expunged. I remind my clients that this is not as mere formality but in most cases requires hiring an attorney and shelling out about $500.00.
In most cases, it doesnt matter because 64% of my clients violate in the first year and in my jurisdiction the standard probation rec consists of three (3) years of reporting probation. Talk about a cash cow forthe government.