Scott Greenfield makes the world a little safer for blawgers (via Houston criminal-defense lawyer Paul Kennedy).

RIP John O’Quinn. A great lawyer and, like many great lawyers, not without personal demons (Rick O’Casey, Houston Chronicle).

Memo from Pat Lykos to Harris County prosecutors: if you violate Batson you’re “incompetent;” if you violate Brady it’s the defense’s fault (Brian Rogers, Houston Chronicle) (also see Houston criminal-defense lawyer Murray Newman).

In a move to reduce jail overcrowding (and concomitantly to bring a little more rationality to the Harris County criminal justice system) the Harris County DA’s Office has reduced its rec on state-jail-felony crack pipe cases to 30 days in jail. I heard a rumor that the Office was going to stop accepting charges on trace cases, which made even more sense to me (knowing possession of a trace amount of cocaine is contradictory—if the crack smoker knew that there was any cocaine left, he’d’ve found a way to smoke it), but that policy hasn’t materialized yet.