Another Mark Bennett
I used to get nocturnal telephone calls from young ladies looking for this guy.
Posted in UncategorizedTags: mistaken identity
Tags: mistaken identity
Thoughts on Independence Day
In his Independence Day post, Scott Greenfield writes:
Americans will not be deeply concerned about freedom in our 233rd year. They will be concerned about eating, jobs, gas and keeping a roof over their children’s heads. Abraham Maslow explains why higher order concerns take a back seat to basic needs. For most of its history, America did a superb job of feeding and housing its citizens. But in this flat world, where our dreams are counted by the price of a barrel of oil, we may have run out of American miracles.
I’ve hesitated to write about this, because its connection to the art and science of criminal defense trial lawyering is tenuous: hungry people aren’t going to be as concerned about putting people in jail as well-fed people will be (retribution is nowhere in Maslow’s hierarchy). Hungry people also aren’t going to be as concerned about staying out of jail as the well-fed, so my criminal defense lawyer brethren and sistren had better have a Plan B.
We need power to keep our economy ticking; there are four sources of power: the sun (fossil fuels, solar, wind, hydro), the earth’s core (geothermal), the nucleus of the atom (nuclear), and the motion of the planets (tidal).
We’ve been depending on million-year-old sunlight (stored in the form of fossil fuels) for about 80 years; now we’ve burned all the cheap fossil fuels we’re going to be burning. Production is decreasing at the same time demand is increasing (world oil production peaked in June 2005). Prices are going up. Sure, there’s more oil to be squeezed out of the earth, but it’s getting harder and harder to squeeze. The energy return on energy investment of oil is diminishing (it’s about 15 now — from a 1-barrel investment, we get 15 barrels out of the ground now; it was 50 in the 1970s); when it hits 1 there’ll still be oil in the ground, but there’ll be no point in trying to get at it.
The last time we had a depression we were in the opening years of the oil age. We burned lots of fossil fuels recovering from it. We won’t have that luxury next time.
All of that is by way of preface to this: we are in a precarious position. We may be able to muddle through an energy crisis by itself, with supplies and prices of gas, food, and everything else going through the roof. But troubles never come singly. Can we withstand a natural disaster of Hurricane-Katrina magnitude during this energy crisis? Where will the refugees go? What will they eat if the truckers stop hauling our food because the price of diesel is so high? How about if the hurricane season is followed by the harshest winter in years, at a time when heating oil is short? What if an epidemic strikes then?
I figure we are set to withstand one, maybe two cataclysms. But when three or more of these disasters strike at the same time (and at some point it’s sure to happen, especially since some of them — natural disaster and disease, for example — are linked), we’re going to get knocked to our knees; it’s going to be bad, especially with about 175,000 of our troops otherwise occupied in the Middle East and unable to assist at home.
Which brings me to the other thing that’s on my mind today.
Yesterday I posted the text of the Declaration of Independence. Read it. It is a hugely aspirational document: It is self-evident that all men are endowed with the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The idea was not that America should be a little island of freedom in a sea of tyranny, but that the obvious Idea of America, equally applicable to all men, should take root there and spread to the rest of the world. The notion that constitutional limits on the U.S. Government’s power apply only to American citizens, or to people on U.S. soil, is inimical to the notions contained in the Declaration of Independence. Our politicians talk big about spreading American values to the rest of the world, but if we can’t manage to provide due process and habeas corpus to people in U.S. custody a few hundred miles offshore, how are we to export these fundamentals of freedom to other parts of the world?
The Declaration of Independence is, from the third to the twenty-ninth paragraph, an indictment of King George. In part:
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers . . . whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
Somebody really should tell the Iraqi people about the ideas contained in the Declaration of Independence; maybe they could declare their own independence and ask that we bring our troops home.
Now that would make for a happy Independence Day.
Posted in UncategorizedTags: Declaration of Independence
The Declaration of Independence
When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
Posted in UncategorizedTags: Declaration, Independence, of, Uncategorized
Also Heard at the Courthouse
I’ve had many potential clients tell me that they had taken deferred adjudication probation because their lawyers (and, in some cases, judges) had told them that deferred adjudication would not appear on their records. I’ve long ascribed this to miscommunication — to criminal defense lawyers telling the literal but misleading truth about deferred adjudication (that it is not a conviction) and clients hearing what they desperately want to hear (that it won’t be on their records).
But a few weeks ago I heard it, clear as a bell, from a lawyer talking to his client in the hallway in the courthouse:
This is a five-year deferred adjudication probation, which will keep it off your record.
This is such bad legal advice that I’m using it as a model for Bennett’s Taxonomy of Bad Legal Advice (not that I want my name forever associated with “bad legal advice” but a good taxonomy needs a name:
- Bad Legal Advice is incorrect.
- Really Bad Legal Advice is incorrect and relevant.
- Terrible Legal Advice is incorrect, relevant, and irreversible.
This lawyer’s advice was incorrect: a deferred adjudication probation remains on the defendant’s record forever. If the defendant successfully completes the deferred adjudication probation, he may qualify for an order of nondisclosure, which (theoretically, at least) removes the record from public view, but until that is accomplished (it may not be possible in some cases, and in most felony cases it is not possible until five years after the probation ends) those who care about a person’s criminal history — I typically cite landlords and employers — will find out about the deferred adjudication and treat it the same as a conviction. So while it is the literal truth that a deferred adjudication is not a conviction for purposes of Texas state criminal law, the rest of the story is that deferred adjudication is treated as a conviction by many people whose opinions on the question matter, including federal judges (a deferred adjudication counts as a previous conviction in federal sentencing) and immigration authorities.
His advice was relevant: a client deciding whether to take the prosecutor’s proffered deferred adjudication probation would do well to consider what the effect on his record, both public and governmental, would be. In fact, the creation of a persistent criminal record is a dealbreaker for many people accused of crimes.
This advice, incorrect and relevant, might have the redeeming quality of being reversible: the lawyer might realize his error, confess error to his client, and reopen the case if the client wants him to by confessing error to the court. But short of the lawyer falling on his imaginary sword, this Really Bad Legal Advice is irreversible. While misinformation concerning a matter about which a defendant is not constitutionally or statutorily entitled to be informed (such as most non-punitive consequences of a plea) may render a guilty plea involuntary if the defendant shows that his guilty plea was actually induced by the misinformation, a defendant’s claim he was misinformed by counsel, standing alone, is not enough for a court to hold that his plea was involuntary.
That is, if the record doesn’t show that the lawyer gave the client this bad advice, the client’s not going to be able to take back his plea. And since I don’t know who the lawyer was, the only way the record is going to show that the lawyer gave Really Bad Legal Advice is if the lawyer admits it. And if he doesn’t admit it?
Terrible.
Posted in UncategorizedTags: bad legal advice, deferred adjudication probation
Badvertising Hall of Shame / ADA
From the website of Andy Nolen, who practices in the Harris County Criminal Justice Center:
RATED BY GOOGLE AND YAHOO AS ONE OF HOUSTON’S:
BEST CRIMINAL ATTORNEYS
BEST CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYERS
BEST CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEYS
BEST CRIMINAL LAW FIRMS
BEST CRIMINAL DEFENSE TRIAL LAWYERS
I suppose he would say that his name pops up in a search for “best criminal attorneys Houston” and so forth. Because, of course, Google and Yahoo don’t rate lawyers.
For this blatantly deceptive bit of advertising garbage, Andy has earned today’s Asshat of the Day Award (ADA).
Posted in UncategorizedTags: advertising, Asshat of the Day Award
More Texas Criminal Law Links
Republished with the kind permission of Paul Bush at CourtPort.com (who saw this post and volunteered his list of Texas criminal law links), following is a comprehensive list of Texas criminal court and jail online links.
I’ve removed all of the sex offender registration links (because lists of sex offenders are so inclusive that they do more societal harm than good and offend my sensibilities) and “most wanted” lists (because the Crown does just fine finding clients for me without my help, thank you very much). So if you are looking for either of those things, go to CourtPort.com, which has a large number of such lists.
I also removed all of the civil, bankruptcy, probate, and family court links. You’ll have to go to CourtPort.com for those as well, and for similar lists for the other 49 states and D.C.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tags: courts, information, online info
No, Really, Thank You!
MR. SPENCE: You notice that I didn’t object to Mr. Day’s opening. There’s were things that were objectionable. Why don’t I object? I want you to hear what he has to say. I don’t want to interrupt his train of thought. I don’t want to interrupt his presentation or rhythms. I don’t want the Court interjecting himself in responding to objections. I want you to hear what the prosecution has to say. And I hope that he will give me the same –
MR. DAY: Objection, Your Honor. We have a duty to object.
THE COURT: I’ll sustain the objection. The Court is here. And — but please proceed, Mr. Spence.
MR. SPENCE: Thank you.
Why can’t all prosecutors be as complaisant as Mr. Day?
Posted in UncategorizedTags: argument
Thoughts on Internet Marketing for Lawyers
Having seen my website rise to the top of the Houston Criminal Lawyer, Houston Criminal Defense, Houston Criminal Defense Lawyers, and texas Criminal Lawyer Google organic search results, I have a few thoughts for other criminal defense lawyers who recognize that potential clients aren’t looking in the yellow pages anymore.
First, you don’t have to spend money on search engine optimization (SEO) or even on website design. For these particular search terms, my site ranks above those of many of my comrades who have spent lots of money on SEO and website design, and I haven’t spent a dime. I got a call the other day from someone at an SEO company who claimed that she had found my site listed 80th in a search. SEO, like every other enterprise that involves cold-calling, is a vile business filled with untrustworthy people selling some form of snake oil. Any SEO firm that takes more than one client for a particular search term is robbing someone. Nevertheless, she may have been telling the truth — if you search the very broad category of Criminal Lawyer on Google my site pops up somewhere on the fourth page. But if I keep blogging about criminal law matters, that’ll certainly change.
SEO is the process of gaming the search engines so that your website pops up first. The race between SEO firms (trying to game Google) and Google (trying to create an ungameable algorithm) is one in which the SEO firms can’t stay ahead for long. So once you’ve paid an SEO firm to game Google, you’ll have to pay them again when Google tweaks its search algorithm. And again. And again. And again. But once I hit the top of a search, the only way you’re going to displace me is if I stop blogging, or if you produce mass quantities of quality content yourself.
Why? Because (second) content matters to Google. (What about Yahoo? I’ve got no idea; Yahoo doesn’t seem to like BennettAndBennett.com as much as Google does. But then, there’s a reason Google has five times the market cap that Yahoo has.) Other than one silly post, which I can’t even find now (Austin criminal defense lawyer Jamie Spencer, help me out, brother!) I haven’t written particularly “keyword-rich” text, either. I don’t like to read conspicously keyword-rich text, and I don’t like to write it. So I just write what I’m interested in. People read it, link to it, and voila.
(A digression: one of the other top-ranking criminal defense lawyers in Houston, John Floyd [there's a little free link love for you, John!] pays someone to write content for his website. Three things about that: John also paid someone to design his site with annoying keyword-richness; John’s content writer is a real treasure, a non-lawyer who knows more about the criminal justice system than most lawyers; and John took a chance on giving the writer a job, and so richly deserves to reap the benefits of that risk.)
Third, if I had to account in six-minute increments for every hour I’ve spent blogging, paying someone else to raise my search engine ranking would undoubtedly seem like a much better investment.
But fourth, content matters to the clients too. I’ve been saying this for a decade: people looking online for a criminal defense lawyer aren’t looking for an advertisement; they want information. They want to know what it is that has happened to them, what is going to happen, and what might happen. They also want to know what might be done about it. If your website just brags about how great you are, you’re wasting your time. Someone charged with DWI wants to know what the process is like. If you answer his questions online, even if you haven’t claimed that you’re the best DWI lawyer ever, he’s likely to want to talk to you more about representation.
Fifth, content lasts. If you say something well now, people will be coming back to it for as long as the lights stay on.
So there are lots of great reasons to blog as a criminal defense lawyer. But you shouldn’t even think about it if stringing together coherent sentences is a chore to you, but if you enjoy writing, find a place to post, and start making your voice heard.
Posted in Uncategorized, marketingTags: blogging
Some Houston-Area (and elsewhere) Criminal Justice Links
Texas Counties with Criminal Case Information Online:
Brazoria County, Texas Criminal Case Search by Defendant Name
Brazos County, Texas Criminal Case Search by Defendant Name
Collin County, Texas Criminal Case Search (H/T Lars Isaacson)
Dallas County, Texas Criminal Background Search
Dallas County Jail Inmate Lookup (H/T Lars Isaacson)
Denton County, Texas Criminal Case Search
Denton County, Texas Jail Inmate Lookup (H/T Lars Isaacson)
Fort Bend County, Texas Felony Criminal Case Search
Harris County Justice Information Management System — Criminal (by subscription)
Jefferson County, Texas Misdemeanor Criminal Case Search
Montgomery County, Texas Jail Roster
Montgomery County, Texas Misdemeanor Criminal Case Search
Montgomery County, Texas Criminal Court Dockets
Tarrant County, Texas Docket Search
Federal Courts:
U.S. District Court Nationwide PACER (search federal criminal dockets nationwide, by subscription)
Southern District of Texas Electronic Case Filing (search criminal dockets in federal court in Houston, by subscription)
Can you add to the list? Drop me an email or leave a comment, and I’ll give you credit (and a link to your blog or website) in the next edition.
Posted in UncategorizedTags: courts, jail, online records
North Texas Criminal Court and Jail Information
Lewisville, Texas federal criminal defense lawyer Lars Isaacson (my erstwhile second-chair, who learned from me how to take a severe beating, if nothing else) has posted a page of court and jail contact information (telephone numbers, URLs) for state and federal criminal cases in the Dallas area — Denton, Dallas, Collin, and Tarrant Counties and the Northern and Eastern Districts of Texas. It’s lots of handy information for both lawyers and clients, all in one place.
Somebody should do the same for this neck of the woods.
Posted in UncategorizedTags: courts, criminal defense, jail