Here's an excerpt from yesterday's Washington Post article by Rick Weiss on the use of DNA evidence in court for reasons other than identification: . . . [W]hat of the murderers, rapists and other violent criminals who fall outside those narrow bounds? Can some, at least, blame their behavior on their genes? Studies have shown that up to 62 percent of antisocial and criminal behavior is "heritable,"

The criminal bar -- defense and prosecution -- are a big dysfunctional family. We go at each other hammer-and-tongs in court, but when one of us is wounded or sick, the rest of us usually pitch in to help. This weekend the family lost one of its own: a defense lawyer whose significant other was a prosecutor passed away. When a defense lawyer dies, aside from the

Did they go to the Lykos Flight Attendant Academy?

When Gale Ladehoff, principal of the Clear Horizons Early College High School in the Clear Creek Independent School District (and Official Woman), assigned a student to Saturday school because of excessive absences, she may not have known that the absences were due to a medical condition. She may not have known that this unwarranted discipline would cause the family logistical difficulties. The student's father met with Ms.

I still haven't gotten to the inevitably brutal Problem of the Working Class post (using the words or phrases “pull yourself up by the bootstraps”; “economic expansion in the service sector”; “a symbolic border wall is the best solution”; “I agree wholeheartedly with Lou Dobbs and Pat Buchanan”; robber barons; the productivity wedge; debt; Scandanavia; and zombie on methamphetamine) suggested in comments to my Improvisational Blogging post

HCCLA is putting on six hours of free ethics CLE -- that's two years' worth -- tomorrow from 9 to 2* in the lawyers' ready room on the 7th floor of the Harris County criminal courthouse. I'll be speaking in the coveted "last speaker on Friday afternoon, long after everyone else has gone home" slot from 3 to 4 p.m. My topic is the ethics of contempt.

AHCL, who knows an awful lot about the DA's office for someone who's not an ADA, has a post today about how the Harris County DA's intake system works (a lot cleaner than the exhaust system). Drop by, and please thank AHCL for sheeding some light on the workings of the office that have been obscured from the bosses' view for years. AHCL's commenters, some of whom

The current text of Section 333 of Title 10 of the United States Code: Interference with State and Federal law The President, by using the militia or the armed forces, or both, or by any other means, shall take such measures as he considers necessary to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy, if it-- (1) so hinders the execution of the

Austin criminal-defense lawyer Adam Reposa gets 90 days in jail for "making a gesture simulating masturbation while standing before County Court-at-Law Judge Jan Breland during a pretrial hearing".The earlier story.(Do you think the cuffs will stop him?)

From the NACDL Champion (H/T a Defending People reader). My favorites: When a group of defense lawyers convene to plan a joint strategy, one of them is about to get screwed. You have one week to figure who it is. If you can’t figure it out after the first week — it’s you. and: Be proud of yourself when you take the time to help another defense