Scott's condescending attitude toward DWI trials had me thinking this week: Hey, after I get out of my DWI trial I should maybe write something about the importance of DWI trials. So here I am on the other side of another DWI trial. DWI cases aren't beneath the dignity of any criminal-defense lawyer in Texas that I know of. Sure, they are "not murders or conspiracies", but

More public access TV stuff: Drugs, Crime and Politics with retired South Texas College of Law prof Buford Terrell.

DWI -- total refusal with no accident, but driving facts include alleged flight from the police (a felony, with which he would undoubtedly have been charged if the cop were not making it up). Unusual jury demographics for Harris County: A 29-year-old hispanic male waste company driver; A 50-year-old black female loan closing manager; A 63-year-old retired white lady from Brooklyn; A 42-year-old black female teacher's aide;

The Houston Chronicle editorial board has endorsed Pat Lykos for DA. The column endorsing her regurgitates her campaign soundbites -- basically, she sold herself to them. There's a lot of empty air in Lykos's campaign promises. In fact, they are almost 100% empty air. But the Chronicle editorial board doesn't understand the criminal "justice" system any better than the voters, so Lykos's empty promises sound good. With

The Harris County Sheriff's Office responded to my email request for "all documents related to the Harris County Sheriff's Office's email retention policy, including emails and other correspondence discussing the policy and changes to the policy [for the time period from January 9, 2008, through January 18, 2008]." Here are the 24 pages of email they sent me. The oldest emails are from detectives, with complaints like

If it is before noon and a weekday, I am probably chugging along at either the Harris County Criminal "Justice" Center or the Houston federal courthouse. If I'm not in trial, I'm taking notes on a file, or negotiating with a prosecutor, or investigating, or filing stuff. If you call me, I will probably answer the phone. Because I never know when it's an emergency, and when

Scott Greenfield has an interesting pair of recent posts: The Conflicted World of Assigned Counsel and today's Rebirth of the Megatrial. In the first, Scott argues that New York's appointed counsel system was not intended to, and should not, provide livings for criminal-defense lawyers: [T]here should never have been an 18b bar to begin with. It was my thought that no lawyer should be permitted to do

I went down to JP Court on the beach in Galveston County this morning, not really expecting to have to try a case. So of course there were 24 potential jurors waiting in the courtroom when I strolled in (I was 20 minutes late because I didn't factor the ferry ride into my travel time), and my client's was the only case on the docket. It took

Please don't contact KHOU about whether the debate should be televised. They get it, and they're starting to get overloaded with emails. They can't broadcast it live on their main channel, and they're already considering broadcasting it live or with a tape delay on their secondary digital cable, which is the best, I think, that we can hope for. Please pass word to your friends.

My dad sent an email to KHOU asking that the station broadcast the February 19th DA candidate debate on television (instead of just on the web as planned): I understand that KHOU will be broadcasting the 19 February debate of the Harris County District Attorney candidates on your website but not on the air. This is an appeal that you also broadcast the debate live on the