Special Prosecutor Kelly Siegler finally saw her way clear to dismissing capital murder charges against a factually innocent man who spent 18 years in prison because of prosecutorial misconduct. Kudos to Siegler for doing the right thing, and to Graves's defense lawyers, Katherine Scardino and Jimmy Phillips, for keeping the heat on until Kelly did the right thing. Anthony Graves is free.Charles Sebesta, the prosecutor who concealed

In the circus that is the Allen Stanford case, Stanford's legal team was the clown car: you never knew who was going to pop out next. This morning Judge Hittner ended that nonsense. Stanford was asking for a change of lawyers and, since an indigent defendant has no right to choose his appointed counsel, Hittner refused to allow Stephen Cochell, Christopher Bebel, and Michael Stanley to represent

Two more lawyers (via Mary Flood, Houston Legal Blog) yesterday filed a notice of appearance in the criminal case against the beleaguered Allen Stanford: Stephen R. Cochell and Christopher Biebel. I've never heard of them, and neither is listed as counsel of record on any federal criminal case in the Southern District of Texas. Cochell bills himself as "Your Outside General Counsel," whatever that means. Bebel markets

So there’s this guy:With respect to anonymity, I am going to maintain it for the time being.  There are a number of reasons.First, there is in my estimation a small risk to others, by association with me. After all, this effort is a swipe at powerful interests. It may or may not be effective – I hope it is. But I see no reason to take even

[Begin willing suspension of disbelief.]As I've said more than once, the government and the free market are failing to provide competent criminal-defense services to the working poor.And so the church steps in: Well of the Oath Legal Clinic of Irving, Texas is a faith-based nonprofit organization providing legal services (through second-year lawyer Craig Randall Novak) to people making less than 250% of the Federal poverty guideline (so

I finally got around to looking at the anonymous Lawyers on Strike blog, which Scott Greenfield, Jeff Gamso, and Mike at Crime & Federalism wrote about last week. The anonymous blogger’s bright idea: “I will use this blog to call for a ‘strike’:  that is, to call upon all attorneys in the geographic area to refuse to appear in front of that judge.”My immediate reaction: “what?” Let’s

Why does it cost more to hire me as the second lawyer on your case? Because the first lawyer was probably this guy: (H/T D.A. Confidential, who says, "This is how it works. For real." DAC is a Travis County prosecutor; 'nuff said.)

The researchers supplied people with Sobe Adrenaline Rush, an “energy” drink that was supposed to make them feel more alert and energetic. (The drink contained a potent brew of sugar and caffeine which, the bottle promised, would impart “superior functionality”). Some participants paid full price for the drinks, while others were offered a discount. The participants were then asked to solve a series of word puzzles. To

FindLaw’s latest marketing gambit: “blogs” for lawyers, using lightly-reworked (as in, “paraphrased so that a particularly stupid high school freshman might turn it in as original work and then be surprised to get an F”) news stories, published “on behalf” of the lawyers paying for the marketing. A few examples (if the link doesn’t work, go to blogsearch.google.com and search for “on behalf of” criminal defense or

Here are the rules—by court order and coerced "agreement"—by which a Texas sex offender has to live for the rest of his life, even after he has served his entire prison sentences, if some hack psychologist doesn't want him in his neighborhood and so testified, because of consequential ethics, that the offender is likely to engage in a predatory act of sexual violence:Texas Sexually Violent Predator Civil