Houston DWI lawyer Paul Kennedy notes that Harris County DA Pat Lykos has ordered DNA testing in every case in which testing is available and relevant.The Chronicle says:Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos will require prosecutors to test DNA evidence in every case where it is available and relevant to prevent miscarriages of justice such as that which led to an innocent man spending more than five

This, an appeal arising out of a Houston case is, as far as I can tell, the first time ever that Judge Sharon Keller has reversed a case to a defendant's benefit.Bailiff uses taser on man accused of photographing witness.Johnson was watching a trial in state District Judge Ruben Guerrero’s court, officials said, then stood up in the gallery and took a picture with his cell phone.Because

If you come here for the snark, please avert your eyes. I'm about to be nice. The blogosphere thrives on conflict, rather than niceness, so this post is not going to win me any readers. But I spend a bit of space here critical of public servants' failure to serve the public. Rest assured that I will continue to do so. It's fair, though, that I should

In Zen, if asked, “What is the Buddha?” one should raise a clenched fist. If asked, “What is the ultimate meaning of the Buddhist Law?” before the words have died away, one should respond, “A single branch of the flowering plum” or “The cypress in the garden.”It is not a matter of selecting an answer either good or bad. We respect the mind that does not stop..

Houston criminal lawyer Murray Newman, to his credit, comes to the defense of his friend Judge Hanger. Good for him. Somehow he finds a tenuous connection between my views on Ms. Hanger, who hasn't (officially) been a prosecutor in years, with collegiality or the lack thereof between defense and prosecutorial bars, but he misses the point -- or, sorry, he writes as though he misses the point.

Clearly (since he's now mentioned it three times in three different contexts), I hurt my friend Murray's feelings by saying that he was, in this post, failing to think like a criminal-defense lawyer.Murray, I assumed that how you wrote accurately reflected how you thought. I won't make that mistake again. I am sorry.

Here are the Google results for:compassionate criminal lawyer: about 124,000truthful -truth criminal lawyer: about 148,000tough criminal lawyer: about 315,000creative criminal lawyer: about 319,000aggressive criminal lawyer: about 2,290,000Granted, these are not all lawyer websites, but there’s a Michigan lawyer with the domain name AggressiveCriminalAttorney.net, and he’s not alone in advertising his aggression. Search for “Houston criminal lawyer,” and two of the highest-paying pay-per-click campaigns include “aggressive” in their

Ex-Judge Hanger, who went from being a "fuck-the-accused" judge in December to calling herself a criminal-defense lawyer in January, is, along with her partner (also a former judge, but one with a repuation for fairness) "currently developing a new Web site with Findlaw." The placeholder page says, "work with a lawyer who will aggressively protect your rights and fight to secure a positive resolution for you" (this

(Via Ralph William Shields -- email him if you'd like to get his TBI news updates): DoD doctors say that the number of U.S. troops who have suffered wartime brain injuries may be as high as 360,000. This is a substantial jump from the Rand Corporation's 320,000 guesstimate from last year. We'll likely never have an accurate number.The DoD doctors now estimate that 45,000 to 90,000 troops

In response to the blawgospheric discussion of peremptory challenges, Minnesota renaissance man Joel "Jdog" Rosenberg wrote:As an outsider, I’m finding this discussion more than moderately interesting. I think it’s (what passes for) conventional wisdom outside your trade that challenges for cause aren’t particularly difficult to get judges to do that okay-thingee on. In a criminal case in Texas (YMMV in the territories), either side may challenge a