Elected Republican Calumet County, Wisconsin District Attorney Kenneth R. Kratz got caught texting the complainant in a domestic-violence assault case. He was prosecuting her ex-boyfriend while trying to get into her pants. Im serious! Im the atty. I have the $350,000 house. I have the 6-figure career. You may be the tall, young, hot nymph, but I am the prize! (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.) Could Kratz have picked

The topic is the "Trench Menu" meme—the posting on Twitter by criminal-defense lawyers of one-line summaries of their days. Norm Pattis started the meme; others jumped in. The post itself is vintage "Get Off My Lawn" Greenfield, so I suspect that Scott was kidnapped sometime between 7:29 a.m. EDT, when the post was published, and 1:20 p.m., when this comment was posted:I've heard from a number of

Most of this year's Harris County judicial elections are worthy of little more than a shrug.I had a sorely disillusioning experience trying a case for almost two weeks before former criminal-defense lawyer Ruben Guerrero, who a) is sorely deficient in judicial temperament and knowledge; b) even the jurors could tell was biased toward the State; and c) was elected because of the Democratic near-sweep in 2008. I

NOTE TO JUDGES, JUDICIAL CANDIDATES, AND OTHER READERS WHOSE IQs MIGHT FALL ONE STANDARD DEVIATION OR MORE BENEATH THE NORM: THESE ARE NOT ENDORSEMENTS. LINKS ARE TO CANDIDATES' WEBSITES, IF I FOUND SUCH WEBSITES, OR TO WHAT I'VE WRITTEN HERE ABOUT A CANDIDATE. Because I haven't seen this information gathered together anywhere else: Court Democratic Candidate Republican Candidate 1 Beverly D. Melontree Paula Goodhart (i) 2 Mary

Before the 1991 Texas Court of Criminal Appeals case of Geesa v. State, Texas criminal juries did not have to be given a definition of "proof beyond a reasonable doubt" and Texas appellate courts used the reasonable-alternative-hypothesis standard to judge the legal sufficiency of evidence in circumstantial-evidence cases: the appellate court had to find that every other reasonable hypothesis raised by the evidence was negated, save and

I'm just trying to find the best lawyer who makes me feel content. So far there hasn't been one that can assure me that punishment will be under 5 years.You will, if you keep trying, find a lawyer who will assure you that punishment will be under five years. This lawyer will be lying to you. Get his promises in writing—it probably won't do you any good,

Courtesy of Robb Fickman, and because Greenfield loves "list" posts, 20 rules for being a criminal-defense lawyer, given by Robb to Craig Still on the occasion of his leaving the DA's Office and joining the Brethren of the Courts (annotations are mine):Craig's List on How to be a Criminal Defense Lawyer1. Get the money up front.2. If a client says money is no problem, that's because he

Here's the application paragraph of the accomplice-witness-as-a-question-of-fact jury instruction from the Harris County jury charge bank.Therefore, if you believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that an offense was committed and you further believe from the evidence that the witness, _____ , was an accomplice, or you have a reasonable doubt whether he was or not, as that term is defined in the foregoing instructions, then

For your perusal: Harris County misdemeanor courts, DWI statistics compared between the year ending July 31, 2010 and the previous year (roughly DIVERT and pre-DIVERT). August 2009-July 2010 August 2008-July 2009 DWI Cases Pending at Start of Period 6,687 6,039 New DWI Cases Filed 12,315 11,341 DWI Motions to Revoke Probation Filed 775 656 Other DWI Cases Reaching Docket 10 7 Total DWI Cases on Docket 19,787

Defending people should be personal. A human being has put his future in your hands, and someone is trying to take that future away. "Don't take it personally" is lousy advice; it may not be necessary to care about the human being you're defending, but it helps—when a lawyer cares about his client, the jury feels it.A funny thing often happens in a criminal jury trial, though: