There wasn’t a breath in that land of death, and I hurried, horror-driven,With a corpse half hid that I couldn’t get rid, because of a promise given;It was lashed to the sleigh, and it seemed to say: “You may tax your brawn and brains,But you promised true, and it’s up to you to cremate those last remains.” In the criminal courthouse, lawyers generally keep their word. Unlike

Immigration law can be complex, and it is a legal specialty of its own. Some members of the bar who represent clients facing criminal charges, in either state or federal court or both, may not be well versed in it.  There will, therefore, undoubtedly be numerous situations in which the deportation consequences of a particular plea are unclear or uncertain.  The duty of the private practitioner in

Friday morning, I saw a dead guy. He was lying on his back under a sheet in a pool of his own blood. I saw him from above. His running shoes, untied, were off to one side and his car keys were at his feet. I deduced that he had jumped from one of the higher floors of the parking garage where I park by the courthouse.

I've long mistrusted the argumentum ad lexicon. English-language dictionaries are descriptive, not prescriptive, so any argument that relies on a dictionary definition is showing a weak hand to begin with. Then, a good dictionary will show enough different definitions for a word that the arguer can base a sophistical argument on the one that he thinks applies. Like this, from my colleague, Houston DWI attorney Paul B.

I am a procedure geek. As Robert Ragazzo, my law school civil procedure professor, used to say, "procedure is everything." Today the U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay of execution to Hank Skinner. Here's a little explanation of how, procedurally, Skinner got there and where he goes next.

The U.S. Supreme Court has stayed Hank Skinner's execution (AP).

This post isn't really about social media sex secrets for lawyers. I don't even know one. But experience teaches that three things sell online: sex, social media, and lists. This post is about Hank Skinner. Hank is going to be executed in about four hours unless Governor Perry or the U.S. Supreme Court grants a reprieve. The chances of that are somewhere between slim and none.I am

For those feeling sanguine about health care reform:Let me get this straight: we just signed into law a health care plan . . . written by a committee whose chairman says he doesn't understand it . . . passed by a Congress that hasn't read it (but exempts themselves from it) . . . signed by a president that also hasn't read it (and who smokes) .

Nobody knows for sure whether Texas has executed an innocent person. Insiders recognize that the odds are excellent, but there hasn’t been the sort of thoroughgoing review of the evidence that would be required to exonerate an executed person. Cameron Willingham is looking like a good candidate, but the State of Texas is in no hurry to conduct that review in Willingham’s case.This is understandable: many powerful

Today begins my fourth year of writing Defending People. It all started on March 19, 2007 with Introduction. Since then I've written 1,325 posts and published over 6,000 comments. I've had about 429,065 unique visitors, and received enough positive feedback to keep me both blogging and humble.Thank you for reading Defending People. Without you I'd be muttering to myself.