Word is that Fort Bend County's elected District Attorney, John Healey, has been appointed as a special prosecutor out of the 230th District Court in Harris County. The subject matter? Stay tuned.

AHCL writes about Houston criminal-defense lawyer / city councilwoman / superheroine Jolanda Jones rescuing a woman from a burning car. In other Harris County lawyer / superheroine news, I've learned that ADAs Connie Spence, Traci "no relation" Bennett, and Caroline Dozier recently saved the life of a civilian who had collapsed outside the criminal justice center. They noticed a man on the ground and Connie began compressions

Posted from my IPhone. A whole new world of blogging opens up!

Western Justice points out that the John R. Justice Prosecutors and Defenders Incentive Act of 2008 has been signed into law. I'm sure I've missed hoopla about this elsewhere, since there was lots of hoopla about it last May. Now that I have more than six readers, I'll ask again the two multiple-choice questions that I asked then:1. The people who decide where the money is spent

"It [is] more dangerous that even a guilty person should be punished without the forms of law, than that he should escape." --Thomas Jefferson to William Carmichael, 1788."It [is] more a duty [of the Attorney General] to save an innocent than to convict a guilty man." --Thomas Jefferson: Biographical Sketch of Peyton Randolph."No nation however powerful, any more than an individual, can be unjust with impunity. Sooner

Not all cops lie. But if perjury is committed at the criminal courthouse, it's likely committed by someone with a badge and a gun -- that is, a law enforcement officer. There's even a term of art for it among the law enforcement community: "testilying".I see three reasons for this. First, statistically, cops testify a lot more than anyone else. Five times as much? Twenty times? So

Beaumont, Texas police officer fired after an assistant chief finds out that, in the course of investigating of prostitution ring, the officer received oral sex a half-dozen or so times (and maybe "one 'active coitus'", according to his lawyer) with the approval of his supervisor and his wife.In Texas, "I'm a police officer" is not actually a legal defense to most criminal charges. By statute, a cop

From Western Justice:If we are truly concerned about the guilty being punished and the innocent being let free, then why encourage one side to hide the truth from the other side? Is the system about winning more than it is truth?and (apropos of reciprocal discovery):I know that defense attorneys are immediately concerned about such a reform, but if you are truly concerned about the guilty being punished

It all started with Gerry Spence's The Simple Secret of Winning post. Manhattan Paladin Scott Greenfield was inspired to make fun of Spence's formula for winning. Connecticut public defender Gideon, in turn, was inspired to post his secret to winning: "Knowing your rear from your face, or, preparation." Even better, he made it a meme, and tagged Scott, South Carolina criminal-defense lawyer Bobby Frederick, and me.Bobby G.F.

Johnson County, Tennessee Sheriff's Deputy Starling McCloud (on the left, in the khaki uniform and the gay-leather-bar moustache) thinks that it's a crime for a citizen to take a photograph of a police officer. (This photograph was taken by the arrestee's 12-year-old daughter after he tossed the offending iPhone to her.) (H/T Missouri Criminal Defense Lawyer Randy England.)I foresee a lawsuit in the county's future; the county