A caller today said, "I heard that you got part of the Online Solicitation of a Minor statute held unconstitutional, but I know that decision doesn't apply to distributing sexually explicit material to minors." I asked him where he got that idea, and he pointed me to this on Dallas lawyer Everett Newton's website: Notably, two other sections of the online solicitation of a minor statute remain

Five years ago, in February 2009 I filed an application for writ of habeas corpus on behalf of a guy—we'll call him Mr. Doe—who had been on probation since 2006 for online solicitation of a child under Section 33.021(b) of the Texas Penal Code, the "explicit communication" statute. I hadn't represented Mr. Doe at trial, and his trial counsel hadn't argued that the statute was unconstitutional. (This

Emanuel Dominguez's fiancée, Jessica Cavender—a Marine like Emmanuel—was nowhere near when, according to this account, "Emmanuel Dominguez began backing away with his hands in the air when [Christopher Ernest] Braughton opened fire, shooting him once in the torso." Now Christopher Ernest Braughton is charged with murdering Emmanuel Dominguez (Indictment—PDF), and is set for trial August 11, 2014. So why is Christopher Ernest Braughton suing Jessica Cavender, the

Ronald Thompson was arrested last September for taking photographs of swimsuit-clad children at Sea World in San Antonio. He was charged with violating Texas's improper photography statute: A person commits an offense if the person: (1) photographs or by videotape or other electronic means records, broadcasts, or transmits a visual image of another at a location that is not a bathroom or private dressing room: (A) without

  From the San Antonio Court of Appeals' opinion in Ex Parte Thompson (PDF), which is before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on discretionary review (and will be argued tomorrow morning by Don Flanary III of San Antonio and Eugene Volokh of L.A.): [W]e hold the plain language of the subsection 21.15(b)(1) does not “limit” or “restrict” the substantive content of photographs—in other words, it does

I couldn't find the Texas Rules of Appellate Procedure online in HTML format—only in PDF format—so I created them. You're welcome.

From Scott Ehlers at the Harris County Public Defender's Office: The Harris County Public Defender’s Office received a grant from the Department of Justice to establish the Future Appointed Counsel Training Program (FACT) for new lawyers committed to representing indigent defendants in Harris County. The training includes a 14-day “boot camp” this summer , and 2 weekend follow-up trainings next year, all provided by Gideon’s Promise (online

My Three Commandments of Criminal-Defense Ethics: I. Thou shalt not break the law. II. Thou shalt put thine client's interests above all else. III. There will be times when (I) and (II) seem to clash; at those times thou shalt consult ethics counsel. From Judge Richard Kopf, who has recommenced blogging at Hercules and the Umpire, in regard to lawyers wearing short skirts and low-cut blouses in

This morning the Court of Criminal Appeals denied the State's Motion for Rehearing (PDF) in my case invalidating Section 33.021(b) of the Texas Penal Code. The court pointedly ignored the Attorney General's effort to intervene, and found that Section 402.010 of the Texas Government Code was also unconstitutional, in violation of the Separation of Powers provision of the Texas Constitution. In related news, I'm pretty sure this

Six and a half years ago Scott Greenfield wrote The Fallacy of True Believers, about the danger of true believers: But Bill [Kunstler] was a scary guy.  Bill was a true believer in the cause, not that I was ever quite clear what the cause was because abject liberalism is an ever changing line.  Bill existed for the cause, not the client.  If the cause demanded that