Dennis Elias’s Latest Tweet :. Injustice News Twitter Feed :.Mark Bennett | October 23, 2009
Given how I feel about lawyers representing defendants with conflicts, I was a bit disturbed to read this piece (Lisa Falkenberg) about Richard “Racehorse” Haynes being accused of conflicted representation in a federal drug case. Richard’s client, Dong Huynh, sentenced to 22 years in prison, alleges that Richard had a conflict of interest because Dong [...]
Mark Bennett | September 11, 2009
Randall Patterson’s Houston Press article on conditions inside the Harris County Jail, based on inmate interviews. If you believe the government, this must be a vast conspiracy of defamation conducted by inmates. If you believe the inmates, federal crimes are routinely committed by jailers.
Which story is more credible? Considering that the inmates aren’t even organized [...]
Mark Bennett | June 16, 2009
Today I saw “Edwin” in court. Edwin is a longtime criminal defense lawyer, a former assistant federal PD, and one of my criminal trial advocacy professors at University of Houston law school.
Edwin represented a codefendant in my first jury trial 12 years ago, and his client’s testimony sent my client to prison for 9 [...]
Mark Bennett | March 23, 2009
I wrote way back in ought-seven about how criminal defense lawyers are unembarrassable. I find my unembarrassability challenged by this: Houston lawyer Jerome Godinich has blown deadlines to file writs of habeas corpus for death row prisoners three times.
In [two of the] cases, the lawyer waited until after business hours on the last day an [...]
Mark Bennett | January 30, 2009
Following Walter Olson’s (Overlawyered) posts about the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, I thought I’d check out the criminal penalties for violation of the CPSIA.
Contrast this:
Any person who knowingly and willfully violates section 2068 of this title after having received notice of noncompliance from the Commission shall be fined not more than $50,000 [...]
Mark Bennett | January 26, 2009
From a post, The Nature of the Job, last October:
Clients sometimes think that they want a lawyer who will act unethically for them, but they don’t: first, because a defense based on lies is almost always doomed to fail; and second, because clients need lawyers they can trust. Unethical lawyers are . . . unethical. [...]
Mark Bennett | January 8, 2009
Here (JDSupra) is a sentencing memorandum that I wrote for a man convicted of a federal crack cocaine conspiracy (this case). He had suffered a horrible childhood, and then lived a law-abiding life for about 25 years before
It did the trick, and it has received good reviews from those who have read it; I hope [...]
Mark Bennett | January 8, 2009
Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.
I had a federal drug conspiracy sentencing this week in which I was arguing, based on my client’s horrible childhood and his history of being a law-abiding and productive member of society for all but two of his 49 years, that he should not go [...]
Mark Bennett | December 17, 2008
Today I was hired to represent a young man in federal sentencing proceedings whose “trial” lawyer had advised him to plead guilty without explaining why, tried to withdraw from the case because the client wasn’t uncritically taking his advice, and then finally on the eve of trial, unprepared, convinced the man to plead guilty because [...]
Mark Bennett | December 11, 2008
From Alex Bunin, Federal Public Defender for the Northern District of New York, comes “Federal Convictions Reversed,” this collection (pdf) of summaries of appellate cases reversing federal convictions (not sentences). An invaluable resource to the federal criminal defense lawyer, but that’s to be expected — the various public defenders’ offices are still and likely always [...]
