Dennis Elias’s Latest Tweet :. Injustice News Twitter Feed :.Mark Bennett | May 29, 2009
From this thread on the TDCAA forums (for which the hat tip goes to Dallas criminal defense lawyer Robert Guest. Robert is having computer problems, so he gave me the lead):
Lisa TannerMember
posted
05-29-09
Disciplinary Rules interplay?
So here is a question that’s come up among lawyers and officers from other states on a listserve I’m on.Near as [...]
Mark Bennett | May 29, 2009
The Harris County Democratic Party has announced its slate of candidates for criminal courts for the 2010 elections. First the District Court (felony) benches:
Darrell Jordan, opposing Debbie Mantooth-Stricklin (whose husband Don lost to Herb Ritchie last year) for the 180th District Court, is a lawyer with three years of experience in a general practice. I’m [...]
Mark Bennett | May 28, 2009
From the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association:
The Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association, Texas Criminal Defense
Lawyers Association, and Fort Bend County Criminal Defense Lawyers
Association announce that they are beginning an immediate investigation into
whether members of the Harris County District Attorneys Office committed
constitutional violations of the Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments, committed the
crime of official oppression, violated the special ethical [...]
Mark Bennett | May 27, 2009
Brian Tannebaum takes on the idea that judges shouldn’t “legislate from the bench:”
That is what extreme conservatives say when they are asked what type of judge they want on the Supreme Court. They all answer in the negative, like a church choir – ‘we don’t want a judge who ‘legislates from the bench.” Ever notice [...]
Mark Bennett | May 23, 2009
“There is no comparison between the crimes and the sentence,” said
Sheik Fadhil al-Janabi, a Sunni tribal leader in Anbar Province. “That
soldier entered an Iraqi house, raped their underage daughter and
burned her with her family, so this sentence is not enough, and it is
insulting for Iraqis’ honor.” (NYTimes.com)
When I read that Iraqi tribal leaders are upset [...]
Mark Bennett | May 19, 2009
In Texas, a lawyer is responsible for her client until she is removed from the case by the judge. If something goes undone while the lawyer is responsible, she can be grieved and (in certain narrow circumstances) sued.
So when (for example) a defendant makes bail, appointed counsel remains legally on the hook until new counsel [...]
Mark Bennett | May 19, 2009
Sunshine Swallers, one of the Harris County’s next generation of outstanding young criminal defense lawyers (a true believer in the best sense), is working with Suzette Sova from the Harris County Mental Health and Mental Retardation Authority (MHMRA) to arrange a 12-hour Mental Health First Aid course.
The course looks like an excellent start for those [...]
Mark Bennett | May 19, 2009
Today I talked with a guy named Fred.
Fred had been appointed counsel (Mr. Lawrence) in January before bonding out, and had been appointed other counsel (Ms. Morris) in April, 10 weeks after bonding out.
Ms. Lawrence and Mr. Morris, along with Ms. Curley, handle virtually all of the indigent representation in the 624th District [...]
Mark Bennett | May 19, 2009
The judge in this case had told me the other day that he generally doesn’t read orders before signing them; he relies on his clerks to vet the papers and signs whatever they put before him.
Judges perform powerful word magic; words on the paper make something happen in the physical world. Clerks may be as [...]
Mark Bennett | May 15, 2009
One of the common questions asked on Texas criminal lawyers’ listervs is, “does anyone have a voir dire for a … case they could share with me?” (I’m reliably informed that prosecutors do the same amongst themselves.)
I have a friend—we’ll call him “Bill Bomble”—who had some experience in show business before becoming a prosecutor. Bill [...]
