To the person who came to Defending People after googling "catheter blog fetish": I hope you find whatever it is you're looking for. Technorati Tags: blogging

I sometimes hear defenders talk about trial as "the last resort" in a criminal case. I prefer to think of a jury trial as the default resolution of any criminal case, and of a guilty plea (with its abandonment of constitutional rights) as the last resort, to be engaged in only if the chances of prevailing at trial are so small that they're not worth the risk

I blogged here about lessons learned from a prosecutor's voir dire. Defender Extraordinaire John Gioffredi of Dallas left this comment, which I thought deserved a little bump so that others could appreciate it: I wonder what would happen if, after hearing the state's nauseating double "GOOD MORNING," the defense started it's voir dire by asking: "Before I get started, I'd like to ask you a very simple

Today in State v. Beam the Texas Supreme Court held that a dismissed misdemeanor case cannot be expunged until the limitations period expires. That means that the many people we represent whose misdemeanor cases are dismissed will have to wait until two years after the alleged offense (according to article 12.02 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure) to get their records cleared. Particularly badly affected are

Yesterday I was fortunate to hear HCCLA member Chris Downey speak for 40 minutes about the use of scaled questions in jury selection in a criminal trial, something that I wrote about here and here. Chris proposed three scaled questions we can use in all criminal cases: How would you rate your feelings about whether the client as he sits up here, is guilty? How would you

We are a nation that talks the "New Testament" talk, but walks the "Old Testament" walk.Anthony C. Odiorne Acting Chief Public Defender Wichita County, Texas

Scott Greenfield, in Simple Justice, writes here about the TB-infected man who, despite being on the watch list, made it through customs and into the U.S. Scott suggests this theory of airport security: Why is it they check the bottoms of my shoes, and won't let me go through the magnetometer, because I have a fourth ounce of shampoo in my possession, but TB Andy breezes through?

Domestic violence assault cases often include complaining witnesses (we don't call them "victims" because the question of whether they are victims is the question of whether our clients assaulted them) who have changed their stories after making reports to the police. The Harris County DA's office has an entire division -- the Family Criminal Law Division (FCLD) that handles allegations of family violence with recanting accusers. FCLD

It's hard to find anyone in the blawgosphere who's not in favor of HR 916, the John R. Justice rosecutors and Defenders Incentive Act of 2007. Gideon calls it "excellent news," as does Capital Defense Weekly. PD Stuff calls it "absolutely fantastic." Jeri Merritt calls it "good news." Fight 'Em 'Til We Can't urges us to ask our senators to support the senate equivalent. The Wretched of

"He didn't even read me mah' random warnings!"