Posted on
January 8, 2013 in
Vinod Kumar Anand and Manohar Lal Sharma have stepped up to defend three of the six men accused of gang rape in Delhi. Here is Sharma: (I suspect—I hope—that "I agree that they are facing the allegation of rape, but if it is true or false I am yet to prove it." is a mistranslation.) Here's a little more about these two characters. Sharma, especially, sounds like
Posted on
January 7, 2013 in
Today I got word that I passed the Texas Board of Legal Specialization exam in criminal law, which I took in Austin last year. I am now a board-certified criminal-defense lawyer. What does mean? Well, my dad videotaped the induction ceremony, and I put it up here so you could get a feel for board certification.
Posted on
January 6, 2013 in
I am reminded, when I hear of lawyers shirking their difficult duties and sticking to the easy work, of the first few lines of Rudyard Kipling's Gunga Din: YOU may talk o' gin an' beer When you're quartered safe out 'ere, An' you're sent to penny-fights an' Aldershot it; But if it comes to slaughter You will do your work on water,An' you'll lick the bloomin' boots
Posted on
January 6, 2013 in
Obama’s advisers have calculated that the longer they wait, the more distance there is from the Newtown massacre and the greater the risk that the bipartisan political will to tackle gun violence will dissipate. At the White House meeting, Stanek said, “the vice president indicated that there was a very short timeline for him to get back to the president with his recommendations because the American public
Posted on
January 5, 2013 in
"[Judge Belinda] Hill confirmed Tuesday that she will leave the bench in the new year to work as Anderson's first assistant." Houston Chronicle, 11 December 2012. Yet, I have learned, almost four weeks later Judge Hill is still on the bench, still hearing felony cases, still making calls that affect the lives of people being prosecuted by the DA's Office to which she is affianced. Did she not
Posted on
January 5, 2013 in
This morning Lisa Simeone (TSA News) brings us word of a TSA lawsuit that continues in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California: [Nadine Hays] was arrested, handcuffed, strip-searched, and jailed after the TSA decided she was too uppity.…Prosecutors later charged her with battery. The charge was dismissed. Hays is suing the TSA. But apparently she’s representing herself in court….The latest news is that
Posted on
January 4, 2013 in
A proposal by Arizona legislator Michelle Ugenti to outlaw online impersonation has gotten some press in the last couple of days. Here's Arizona's proposed online-impersonation statute (PDF). It's a near-copy of Texas's online-impersonation statute, passed in 2011. There are some small stylistic differences, but the meat is the same. Here's the gist (with changes from the Texas statute to the Arizona bill redlined): (a)A. A person commits an offense online impersonation
Posted on
January 4, 2013 in
HOUSTON, TX - Criminal-defense lawyer Mark Bennett has recently announced his intention to take on representation of all rich people charged with crimes in the state of Texas, effective immediately. Recognizing that the filthy rich often face an unfair bias in the courtroom, Bennett, a Houston, Texas lawyer, seeks to acquit any and all rich people wrongfully charged with serious crimes. No, not really. It might be
Posted on
January 3, 2013 in
Might we be better off today if the Bill of Rights had never been written? If your reaction to that begins, "but the Bill of Rights gives us…" I'm halfway to my point. The Bill of Rights doesn't give us any rights. It simply confirms a few of the rights that the founders thought God had given us. But somehow the notion became popular that the Bill
Posted on
January 2, 2013 in
The Houston Chronicle, on Harris County DA Mike Anderson's proposed new DWI deferred adjudication legislation: Deferred adjudication is a form of probation that allows suspects who successfully complete probation to go on with their lives without a criminal conviction on their record. * * * * * Anderson's proposed change would allow first-time convictions for DWI to be erased from a defendant's record, but, unlike DIVERT, prosecutors