H.L. Mencken wrote: Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats. That's a pretty good description of my mood when I have a trial going on: the Jolly Roger is flying from the mainmast and I'm knee-deep in gore. It's not a bad feeling. There's something wonderfully antisocial about trying a criminal case --

A felony judge told me the other day that one of the factors she considers in deciding whether to give a person probation is whether the person can pay whatever restitution might be due to the complaining witness. The Texas Constitution forbids imprisonment for debt. I pointed out to the judge that putting someone in prison because he couldn't pay restitution would violate the Texas Constitution. "It's

Fellow Houston criminal-defense lawyer (and president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association) Robb Fickman adds, in response to the bill offering psychological counseling to former jurors: How about this: How about some counseling for the families and children of men and women who have been found innocent after years of wrongful incarcerated? Oh yeah they get to beg the state for money. How about restitution and

There is a bill in Austin allowing the government to provide post-trial psychological counseling for jurors in certain types of cases. The bill provides for the "crime victim liaison" to arrange for the counseling, and allows the crime victim liaison to use a company that provides similar services to victims. According to this Austin American-Statesman story on the bill, "the bill is not clear on who would

Three examples of altered states of consciousness in the courtroom: On cross-examination, a lawyer gets a federal agent into what Chicago federal defender cross-examination teacher Terry MacCarthy calls "Yes Mode," nodding and saying "yes" to each question. When the lawyer gets to the difficult questions, the witness continues truthfully saying "yes" even though he would rather deny, argue, or quibble.On direct examination, a lawyer takes his client's

Methamphetamine is bad stuff. Really, really bad stuff. If the devil were to invent a drug to destroy mankind, it would be meth. That's why I used to say that methamphetamine, out of all of the drugs in the world, should be illegal. Phoenix criminal defense attorney Marc Victor makes a compelling argument that methamphetamine should be legalized. I think that he is right, and that I

Here's a little Thursday afternoon regalito for my fellow Texas Criminal Defense lawyers: Often the State will lie behind the log in closing arguments, waiving its "right" to open the argument and saving all of its arguments for after the defense has made its argument. (For the laypeople reading this: when the State does this it means the prosecutor doesn't have enough faith in his case to

In Texas, there is a statute that says that a defendant will have a jury trial unless both the State and the defendant agree not to have a jury trial. Prosecutors, many judges, and some defense lawyers sometimes say that the State has a "right" to a jury trial. Another statute says that, when arguing a case to the jury, the State can open and close the

A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent upon arriving. A good artist lets his intuition lead him wherever it wants. A good scientist has freed himself of concepts and keeps his mind open to what is. Thus the Master is available to all people and doesn't reject anyone. He is ready to use all situations and doesn't waste anything. This is called embodying

A lawyer is in court with his client. The prosecutor has made a plea offer to the lawyer, who thought it was something the client should have accepted. The lawyer has conveyed the offer to the client, and tried to convince him to take it. The client has rejected the offer. Often we will see the lawyer put the client on the witness stand in open court,