Dennis Elias’s Latest Tweet :. Injustice News Twitter Feed :.Mark Bennett | April 14, 2009
Andrea Marsh of the Texas Fair Defense Project comments:
I think you’re letting the judges who won’t appoint counsel to indigent bail defendants off too easily. These judges are violating the law, whether they straight out deny an application based on bond status (CCP 26.04(m)) or hold applications for counsel while repeatedly resetting cases in order [...]
Mark Bennett | April 7, 2009
This is the case on which I was deselected from the jury last week. Now I’m glad Caroline “Wonder Woman” Dozier decided to strike me; I wouldn’t want to be remembered for having sent a guy to prison during my tenure as HCCLA President.
The jury gave the defendant life in prison plus a $10,000 fine [...]
Mark Bennett | January 26, 2009
A comment, in response to the Houston Chronicle’s front-page article today about the possible release, on PR bonds, of low-risk pretrial detainees (which article incorrectly describes the accused as “offenders”):
This is a horrible idea! Releasing them on PR bonds defeats the purpose of tough justice. We need to keep them there so that we can [...]
Mark Bennett | November 25, 2008
Over two years ago, shortly before the most recent election for the fifteen Harris County Criminal Court at Law (misdemeanor) benches, there was a brouhaha at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center about a politically incorrect email sent by CCCL6 Judge Larry Standley to other judges:
The issue: an e-mail [captioned, "What in the world is [...]
Mark Bennett | November 18, 2008
I’ve written here many times about my opinion that the best judges
are people whose life experience is broader and deeper than
the ordinary high school-to-law school-to-DA’s office-to-bench career track.
I’ve also mentioned my friend Kevin Fine before: he’s the guy I called when one of my friends was in Deep East Texas trouble; Kevin didn’t even hesitate [...]
Mark Bennett | November 10, 2008
It will be interesting to see the changes in the next few years. With eight courts being led by judges on a “learning curve,” watch their dockets increase. Watch the appellate courts reverse decisions, the tax dollars wasted and the criminals who are set free.
Last week I discussed the first part of this chicken-littling — [...]
Mark Bennett | November 6, 2008
From this morning’s Chronicle story (by Mary Flood and Brian Rogers) on the ouster of the Republican judges:
Civil District Judge Sharolyn Wood, who lost the seat she’s had since 1985, lamented that voters have lost “about 250 years of judicial experience” in this sweep. She said Harris County’s judiciary has been kept stable by an [...]
Mark Bennett | November 6, 2008
There’s much gnashing of teeth among the prosecutors and other right-wingers down at the courthouse this morning about the Democratic near-sweep of the nine open felony court benches.
Those who have suddenly realized that partisan election of judges is not a good thing should consider . . .
First, that this was not the first partisan election [...]
Mark Bennett | October 12, 2008
Thanks to a reader, I downloaded the Houston Bar Association’s 2008 Judicial Preference Poll, an incumbent lovefest. I’m guessing that among the 1300 attorneys who rated the criminal district court judges, half have never set foot in the criminal courthouse, except possibly as defendants because of a serious crack problem.
How is it that more people [...]
Mark Bennett | October 3, 2008
The terrain of a trial comprises the factors that the trial lawyers don’t create — for example, the spirit of the times, the state of the law, the unchangeable facts and, to a great extent, the conduct of the judge.
The lawyers know what the spirit of the times, the state of the law, and [...]
