I am in New York right now helping a person accused in a federal drug case that's pending in the Southern District of New York (in Manhattan); last night I got to watch the Yankees play the Mets at Shea Stadium (which isn't going to be around much longer -- they're building the new park next door). As a lover of metaphor, I feel that any worthwhile

Anne Reed has posted a list of my recent posts on jury selection. Five posts on jury selection in four days is almost embarrassing (especially since I posted nine other times in those four days -- is that writing or typing?). I really love jury selection, though; it's my second-favorite part of a trial. (My favorite part of a trial is taking a two-word verdict, (a) about

The results of the Houston Bar Association's annual Judicial Evaluation Questionnaire are out. Here are the results for Houston's federal judges and Harris County's Criminal District Court and County Criminal Court Judges (they're excerpted from the results for all judges touching Harris County cases, including appellate judges, here). The numbers include number and percentage of "outstanding," "acceptable," and "poor" votes in several different categories. For an overall

In commenting on my post, A Prosecutor's Voir Dire: Lessons, Gideon wrote: I'm just afraid of jurors not answering questions like: "Do you have any preconceived notions of what a sex offender looks like" truthfully in front of others.That's a valid fear whether the others are their fellow venirepeople or two lawyers, a judge, and a court reporter. The problem, no matter the size of the audience,

Anne Reed of Deliberations blogs about Prior Inconsistent Statements. It's good to know what jurors think of such statements, both for the sake of our cross-examinations of government witnesses, and for the sake of our clients who probably haven't always told the whole truth about the incidents that brought them to criminal court.

As promised, the lessons I learned from the prosecutrix's voir dire today: 1. If you're prosecuting a child sex case, you can do a bad voir dire with impunity. The prosecutrix did three of the four bad things to do in voir dire (See Bad Voir Dire / Good Voir Dire): she lectured the panel extensively; when she asked questions they were almost all yes-or-no; and she

A law student reader wrote: "I definitely do enjoy reading your blog and will say it has me rethinking my relegation of a criminal law career." (I had never seen "relegate" used without a destination; thanks to my correspondent for this elegant locution.) I went into law school thinking that I wanted to be a criminal-defense lawyer. I'm not quite sure how I reached that conclusion, except

This morning I went to court in Richmond (Fort Bend County, one of those abutting Harris County, and an area from which many people commute to Houston), geared up to try an indecency with a child case. When I got to court, I learned that another indecency case was up before mine, and that it would probably go to trial. So after an hour or so of

From Houston trial lawyer Rusty Hardin, who spoke at the TCDLA/HCCLA Dealing With the Media seminar last week, three rules for dealing with the media when talking to them won't help your client: 1. Return their calls. 2. Tell them the truth. 3. Tell them why you can't talk to them.

One of our speakers at the Dealing with the Media and Fighting Like You Mean It seminar last Friday gave us this tip for dealing with the media the next time they catch you coming out of the courtroom. Answer five questions for them: Who are you? (What is your name? Spell it.) What happened in court? What does that mean? How is your client doing? What