I often say that criminal-defense trial practice is about playing "what's really going on here?" At every phase of a trial case, we are dealing with people who aren't telling us the whole truth, because they don't know it, don't know its importance, don't want to tell it, or don't want us to know it. The facts are usually, at first glance, bad for us (else the

Dallas's index Ebola Zaire patient, Thomas Duncan, was at home for four days while he was symptomatic with Ebola. His family were not infected with the virus. While Duncan infected two nurses at the hospital during his final days (when he was leaking blood from every available orifice) he didn't infect the people who lived with him when he was very sick—sick enough to have gone to

I've written here several times, under the category "math is hard," about Americans' innumeracy with regard to risk and danger. I have a theory: Americans overestimate the danger (risk times harm) of things that they are willing to do something about (terrorism!), and underestimate the danger of things that they are not willing to do something about (obesity!). The government, meanwhile, has an interest in overstating the

[via The White House.] I'll take the last point—which may be literally true—first: "Ebola is not spread through casual contact with someone who has no symptoms of the disease." Per the CDC, "Initial signs and symptoms are nonspecific and may include fever, chills, myalgias, and malaise. … The most common signs and symptoms reported from West Africa during the current outbreak from symptom-onset to the time the

On April 5th TSU law student Amir Tavakkoli sent me this message via my website: Your name: Amir Tavakkoli Your E-mail Address: [redacted] Your Phone Number: [redacted] The defendant's Name: Amir Tavakkoli The defendant's date of birth: [redacted] The court: Texas Court of Criminal Appeals/Appeal from 9th COA The case number: 09-13-00082-CR Your message to Bennett & Bennett: Dear Mr. Bennett: I hope this email finds you

In the same way that sovereign citizens and jailhouse lawyers take snippets of language from cases and quote them as gospel truth, applicable in all cases, anti-revenge-porn zealots take snippets of language from cases and quote them as gospel truth, applicable in all cases: While Bennett has accurately described categories of speech that the Supreme Court has deemed "unprotected," there are other types of speech that are

Danielle Citron compensates for her ignorance of First Amendment law with her certainty: Disclosures of private communications involving nude images do not enjoy rigorous First Amendment protection. They involve the narrow set of circumstances when the publication of truthful information can be punished. Slate, All States Should Outlaw Revenge Porn. Laypeople don't know that Citron is wrong and have no reason to doubt this bald assertions, and

I've written about Robert S. Bennett from time to time, and I'm not impressed by him. But neither was I impressed with the State Bar's effort to disbar him, which effort succeeded in March. Robert S. Bennett was barred: from practicing law in Texas, holding himself out as an attorney at law, performing any legal services for others, accepting any fee directly or indirectly for legal services,

  Harris County District Judge Katherine Cabaniss's email pleading for votes in the popularity contest that is the Houston Bar Association's Judicial Preference Poll (via Robb Fickman, who I hope will have something to say about it when he's out of trial) is right across the SWRVs' ((Scared White Republican Voters'.)) home plate: Dear Fellow HBA Member, The Houston Bar Association’s Judicial Preference Poll will be released

You think it's insane that Arizona allows a 9-year-old to shoot at a firing range? ABC News reports that one in Texas allows them to do so at age 6. -Leonard Pitts, Jr. So we make the leap from dumbass puts fully automatic pistol in hands of little girl, winds up dead to it is insane to allow children to shoot at shooting ranges A well-run shooting