Malum in Se, are you out there? Please let us know that you're okay and still fighting the good fight.

Williamson County's John Bradley says, "The government has already decided, as a matter of law, that [marijuana] is not available for such a [medical] purpose. No defense permitted." (H/T Robert Guest, via Grits.) Oops, sorry, John! DPS Troopers are shopping for Denton, Dallas, and Tarrant County judges to "go to for blood warrants." Not to worry, they already have judges they use in McKinney County. In Houston,

Judge Kenneth Hoyt today held Chuck Rosenthal and his lawyer, Harris County District Attorney's Office General Counsel Scott Durfee, in civil contempt, ordering Rosenthal to pay $18,900 in "attorneys' fee sanctions" and making Durfee jointly and severally liable for $5,000 of that. Here's the order. Here's the motion. I think the motion could have supported a criminal (punitive, rather than restorative) contempt finding, with a larger fine

If you're sitting on a jury and the facts and law require you to convict but your conscience requires you not to, you must follow your conscience and acquit. Here are some resources intended to educate you, as a juror, of this right: The Fully Informed Jury Association FIJA Juror's Handbook Kelly Ross on Nullification "Jury Nullification: The Evolution of a Doctrine" by Clay Conrad Erowid's Jury

My friend, fellow Houston criminal-defense lawyer Clay Conrad, wrote the book on jury nullification. Literally. Clay's taking a little time off; I expect him to join in soon, but until then there's always his book: "Jury Nullification: The Evolution of a Doctrine"

Via NPR, this StoryCorps story about Julio Diaz, who was getting off a subway in the Bronx when a teenage boy approached and pulled a knife: "He wants my money, so I just gave him my wallet and told him, 'Here you go,'" Diaz says. As the teen began to walk away, Diaz told him, "Hey, wait a minute. You forgot something. If you're going to be

I'm declaring Defending People a no-Nazi zone. If you want to call someone a Nazi, go elsewhere. Why? Because I don't like ad hominem attacks in comments. They are, as Michael pointed out in a recent comment, absolutely unpersuasive. The "Nazi" attack is particularly offensive because it minimizes Nazism. You want to prosecute nullifiers? "You're a Nazi!" No, you're not. Let's face it: nothing that anyone could

From NewsLI.com (little known geographical fact: Texas is so big that Amarillo is actually closer to Long Island, New York than it is to Houston) comes this story about a successful marijuana defense by Jeff Blackburn: A Texas patient who uses medical marijuana to treat the symptoms of HIV won acquittal on marijuana possession charges March 25 based on a “necessity defense.” Though such a defense -

Robb Myers, one of the commenters on my guest blogger's nullification post, included this little gem in his comment: "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt Perfect.

Jurors in Texas must swear that they "will a true verdict render according to the law and the evidence." My Guest Blogger maintains that a nullification verdict is not "a true verdict according to the law and the evidence," insisting that "true" in the context means "Guilty if he’s guilty and not guilty if he’s not." He is wrong. Around these parts (Defending People) we talk about