New York criminal-defense lawyer Scott Greenfield really doesn't like the idea, but prescribes two options for "when there's no other choice."Virginia prosecutor (and former criminal-defense lawyer) Ken Lammers did it himself, and offers "option C: nose to the grindstone."Miami criminal-defense lawyer Brian Tannebaum, who got himself a fancy-pants PD gig out of law school, calls it a "dumb ass idea" (while somehow managing not to link to

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 appeal could be filed and then blamed a malfunctioning filing machine for his

People often use the verb "to impact" instead of "to affect" or the noun "impact" instead of "effect" because they can't be bothered to remember the difference between affect and effect. One self-styled writer tweets, "Yep, now those words [affect, effect] are being replaced in the lexicon with things that aren't confusing (re: impact). Language evolution wins!"Nope. There are few contexts in which "affect" and "effect", used

I first met "Brother Dave" when he was the case agent for an informant on a cocaine case I was trying. It was a state-court case, but the witness against my client had worked off a federal beef in part by making the case against my client, so Special Agent Brother Dave of the DEA held his hand through my interview of him, and then testified at

Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association's "Reasonable Doubt" television show, August 14, 2008 episode. Hosts Houston criminal-defense lawyer Todd Dupont and Harris County Assistant District Attorney Belinda Smith. Guests: attorney Laney Vazquez, Precinct 6 Constable Lt. Mark Timmer. Subject: Animal cruelty laws.

Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association's "Reasonable Doubt" television show. August 7, 2008 episode with Houston criminal-defense lawyers Tate Williams and Sean Buckley.

Harris County CriminalLawyers Association's "Reasonable Doubt" television show. July 31, 2008episode, with hosts Houston criminal-defense lawyers Todd Dupont andTate Williams, and guest Houston criminal lawyer Doug Murphy.

The March 12, 2009 episode of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association's Reasonable Doubt television show. Hosts: Houston criminal lawyer Todd Dupont and me; Guest: top Houston criminal-defense lawyer Vivian R. King.

Here's last week's Reasonable Doubt, with Houston criminal-defense lawyers Neal Davis, Todd Dupont, and me. It's sure to give any true-believer prosecutor hives.

I'll be cohosting Reasonable Doubt tonight with Houston criminal-defense lawyer T.B. "Todd" Dupont. Our guest will be top Houston criminal lawyer Vivian King. We'll be streaming from 8pm CDT on HMSTV.org. Tune in and call in. Next week's guest will be Richard "Racehorse" Haynes (Thursday, March 19, 2009). The following week (March 26) First Assistant District Attorney Jim Leitner will be HCCLA's guest on the show. I've