In 2007, when Pennsylvania decided to prosecute William Barnes 40 years after the fact for the murder of William Barclay, after Barnes had already served a prison sentence for the attempted murder of Barclay, I asked (Gideon reminds me now), "How does a conviction for attempted murder not jeopardy-bar a prosecution for murder when the victim dies?" [Update: Mr. Barnes went to trial, and on May 24,

I believe strongly that federal criminal trials can be won—the Government, while powerful, is not omnipotent. Because of this belief, I have tried more federal criminal cases than state misdemeanor cases; my first jury trial ever was a bank robbery case in Lee Rosenthal's court. Some years ago, I aspired for a brief time to a practice defending federal criminal cases only. I saw myself taking five

I've noticed that trial lawyers, when their beliefs about how to try cases are questioned, sometimes react as though the questions are personal attacks. This came to my attention in discussions among Trial Lawyers College alumni about the management of that institution. Most alumni remained silent, but the truth—that the avowedly anti-institutional College is run by a corporation that (like any good corporation) might make its decisions

From the TCDLA Bylaws, Art. IX Sec. 3:A qualified member who desires election as an officer, director or associate director of the Association may file a petition to that effect. Such petition shall set forth the office sought and shall have attached to it the signed statements of twenty (20) members who believe the petitioner is qualified for such office or directorship and will perform the duties

You get something like this in the mail, addressed to you:You know you've got no business with the accountancy that sent it. You're a criminal-defense lawyer, and have no business with accountants as a general rule. Do you:a) Figure it's junk mail, and roundfile it; orb) Figure it's important, and open it immediately?I figured it was junk mail, but opened it out of curiosity. What it turned

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[This fragment has been hanging around for weeks in ScribeFire. It has nothing to do with Norm Pattis's Triage post, except that the title of Norm's post reminded me of this one. It has much to do with "I need a lawyer just to. . ." and this comment on magic words.]Quoth Greenfield:[Lawyers] offer free consultations, which clients interpret as a free hour of a lawyer's time

"I'm looking for a lawyer just to . . ."This is a bad-news call. "Just to" has one of three implications, none of which involve situations that you want to get into. Get off the phone as quickly as you can. First, "just to" can mean "for only the following activities, which are a small part of  the complete representation that I need:", as in "just to

There was a little discussion on Twitter this morning, started by Houston DWI lawyer Paul Kennedy, about suppression of illegally obtained evidence in Texas.In Texas, foreigners are often surprised to learn, juries can decide suppression issues on disputed facts—for example, when the cops say that they stopped the defendant for not wearing a seatbelt and the defendant or a passenger says that the defendant was buckled in.How

Here's a list (compiled by Houston criminal-defense lawyer—and hero of the revolution—Robb Fickman) of the Houston Police Department officers suspended in the last two weeks:Chinese Consulate:Officer Timothy Riley Jr. (Central Patrol Division)Officer Quang Tran (Central Patrol Division)Officer Victor Olivares (Central Patrol Division)Chad Holley Arrest:Sgt. John McClellan (Westside Gang Unit)Officer Raad Hassan (Westside Gang Unit)Officer Waleed Hassan (Westside Gang Unit)Officer Drew Ryser (Westside Gang Unit)Officer Philip Bryan (Westside