Word is that Alex Bunin, Harris County's first Public Defender, has chosen Bob Wicoff to head his appellate division, and that they have offered positions as assistant PDs to Melissa Martin, Jani Maselli, and Sarah "Bennett's Brain" Wood. Bunin's choice of Wicoff is commendable and, while I deeply resent their cooptation of my trial partner, I have to applaud Bunin and Wicoff's selections: true believers, smart people,

Shortly after Nutt was arrested, State District Judge Kevin Fine reduced his bail from $200,000 to $20,000 without notifying prosecutors, a move that some legal experts said could result in possible discipline for violating judicial ethics. (Chron.com.)Okay. What experts? Here’s the lede from the Chronicle’s article form the 18th on the lowering of Deputy Nutt’s bail:A Houston judge faces possible discipline for violating judicial ethics by reducing

A backlog of thousands of Texas court cases. Drunken drivers convicted on lesser charges. Repeat DWI offenders who don’t have a record of a related conviction or treatment. Those are some examples of what’s bringing together a new coalition that includes Mothers Against Drunk Driving, prosecutors and defense attorneys who support a widespread change in how the state punishes first-time drunken drivers. (Houston Chronicle.) The change in

I've made some punishment arguments to juries that I'm very proud of—arguments that gave me shivers, that got my clients exactly what they wanted. But I don't believe I've ever read—much less made—a punishment argument anywhere near as powerful as this argument to a judge in an intoxicated-manslaughter a second-degree murder case by California criminal-defense lawyer Jacqueline Goodman (via Simple Justice): Everyone is pretending. Pretending that Andrew

“I can’t go through because I have the equivalent of a pacemaker in me,” she said. Hirschkind said because of the device in her body, she was led to a female TSA employee and three Austin police officers. She says she was told she was going to be patted down. “I turned to the police officer and said, ‘I have given no due cause to give up

I've added to my Scribd collection of documents from the John Green case the defense's initial brief in opposition to mandamus, filed before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals' first order denying mandamus. Green Defense Brief in Opposition to Mandamus

Here are three briefs filed today in State ex rel Lykos v. Fine, the mandamus proceeding in the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals arising out of the defense’s efforts to show that there is an unreasonable risk that a factually innocent person will be executed, in violation of the Eighth Amendment. First is the defense’s brief. An amicus brief oppposing mandamus by more than 50 current and

[M]andamus relief is available only when the relator can establish two things: first, that no other adequate remedy at law is available; and second, that the act he seeks to compel is ministerial. An act is ministerial “when the law clearly spells out the duty to be performed … with such certainty that nothing is left to the exercise of discretion or judgment.” That’s the Texas Court

From: John Pistole, TSATo: Robert Mueller, FBIBob,Kudos to you for that Oregon thing. You are getting really good at fabricating terrorist plots to bust would-be bombers. I’ll tell you, FBI is looking good in the War-on-Terror field.Actually, that’s why I’m writing to you—I have to ask you to do me a big favor.

They didn't tell us this in law school, but the University of Chicago Law School has a Manual of Legal Citation that is, in many ways, much simpler and therefore more useful to the practitioner than The Bluebook. It's also free.Bryan Garner, in The Elements of Legal Style, commends The Bluebook and the ALWD Citation Manual and notes that "allowing discretionary forms of citation, as [the Chicago