If you're making ten dollars an hour and working full time you need to try to hire a lawyer. That was a Harris County Criminal Court at Law judge this morning, talking to a young man who was asking for court-appointed counsel. This—"ten dollars an hour and working full time"—and that he worked "for a contractor" is all the judge knew about the young man's financial situation,

Until recently, Texas Penal Code § 31.03 provided that theft is “a state jail felony if,” among other things, “the value of the property stolen is less than $20,000 and the property stolen is insulated or noninsulated tubing, rods, water gate stems, wire, or cable that consists of at least 50 percent: (i) aluminum; (ii) bronze; or (iii) copper.” But the new statute deletes the text from

The Founders' principle that all men are endowed by their creators with certain unalienable rights has, in its implementation, been limited to those men who are fortunate enough to find themselves within U.S. borders, or holding the magical status of "citizen." The Constitution doesn't apply to foreigners abroad, but it applies to citizens wherever they are. No person shall be … deprived of life, liberty, or property,

Lawyer (and HCCLA member) Sesha Kalapatapu wrote a short essay—apropos of Brian Wice's op-ed criticizing a prosecutor's post-trial conduct and the prosecutor's response—which I thought was too good not to share (with Sesha's permission, of course):Nobody really knows what Brian “did” or “didn't do,” or what Nathan “did” or “didn't do” unless you were there. All we can rely on is the first person account statements that

I am well-acquainted with the Imp of the Perverse. The Imp and I are buds. We've lived together for a long time, and I give him free rein from time to time. At his urging, I'll egg on the lawyer who is posting drunk to the listserv, or I'll suggest to my brother, in a car full of relatives from our parents' generation, that the elephant on

These are the new leads. These are the Glengarry leads. And to you they're gold, and you don't get them. Why? Because to give them to you would be throwing them away. They're for closers. "Leads" are what you buy from the guys who set up the "free month at the gym" boxes at Schlotzky's. "Leads" get cold-called by guys in boiler rooms. Any criminal-defense lawyer paying

[Let this be a monument to hasty blogging. I based my "good news" on a) another lawyer's published legislative update; and b) an earlier version of HB 351 than the enrolled version. While HB 351 cleaned up the language of the expunction statute, the news is not that good. The intent of the legislature was to restore the law to the way most of us thought it

Defendant makes plea deal including term that, if he pays restitution, "verfiable to the state as to their source," the state will not pursue charges on two other cases. Defendant comes up with the money, and a doctor confirms that he has given the defendant the money, but the prosecutor does not accept the money, and instead pursues the additional charges. I think the lesson here is

RIP Pat Barber (via Tony Vitz). Barber died 29 July 2011. Here's a story about him in his local paper, and here's a 2004 story from the Idaho Observer.(I mentioned Pat before here.)

Past book recommendations from Defending People are consolidated at my aStore on amazon.com; I've added a few other books that I have enjoyed or found useful (or both).