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Recent Blog Posts
Real Bloggers Get DOSed
English barrister Geeklawyer apparently wrote something not-so-nice about ex-PM Tony Blair (who reportedly seeks to become president of the EU), resulting in the Blairites (Blairians?) attacking his blog with a denial-of-service attack.
Dean and Me on the Marconi
About 30 minutes of the anti-drugwar radio show "Cultural Baggage" with Dean Becker, today on Pacifica station KPFT.
Elsewhere
A tour of my "Read First" list in Google Reader:
Stephen Gustitis comments on a post by Dallas lawyer Brian Cuban responding to this post on Tom Kane's Legal Marketing Blog. I'm not sure whether Brian's point is really that he doesn't give a shit (his words) about his clients or that most other lawyers don't give a shit about their clients. It's not entirely clear I'm guessing it's the latter (and that the "I don't give a shit" of the title is ironic), because he distinguishes between "kick ass" lawyers and "don't give a shit" lawyers, and writes that the latter aren't reading legal marketing blogs, which he is plainly doing. Anyway, nice move for Brian, who clearly knows how to "reduce his reputation value".
The Rorschach Ink-Blot Debate
There was something for everyone last night; supporters of Kelly Siegler liked how she came out, supporters of Jim Leitner thought he clearly won. Supporters of Doug Perry saw a honest, nice man who would be the right guy for the job if the job were what he thinks it is: a CEO / ambassador position that doesn't involve leading 250+ trial lawyers. Even supporters of Pat Lykos thought their candidate looked most like a district attorney.
One of the two candidates who has never tried a criminal case (Doug Perry) took some heat for it. The other (Pat Lykos) got a free pass; I wonder if the candidates seriously believe that presiding over criminal cases as a judge is somehow equivalent to trying them as a prosecutor. It isn't.
Here (part I) and here (part II) is KHOU's video of the debate. Here is the Chronicle's coverage. Here, here, and here are AHCL's other posts about the debate.
The Mote and the Beam
When asked about the minority composition of the DA's office at last night's debate, Kelly Siegler stated that the DA's office has more black and hispanic lawyers than the bar as a whole. I suspect that she knows what she's talking about.
This made me wonder: how does the Harris County Criminal Lawyers' Association's diversity compare to the Harris County DA's Office's?
Proper Accreditation
My apologies to a journalist, whose yesterday's column I shamelessly ripped off without attribution in a blog post four days ago.
When this journalist quotes from my blog, she has the good manners to cite it as "an attorney blog"; I should have the same courtesy when I write something that she will write three days later.
Thought for the Day
We - all of us - are no more than one traumatic brain injury away from committing capital murder.
... Gone!
Chuck Rosenthal has resigned, effective 3 p.m. today.
In his letter of resignation he writes:
Today, I wrote Governor Perry and tendered my resignation as Harris County District Attorney. My decision to retire from office was precipitated by a number of things.The federal court's release of my private emails around Christmas of last year brought a lot to bear on my wife and children. I have been trying to restore my family as a unit, but the constant media pressure has made that restoration more difficult. I am hopeful that, in my retirement, the media will accord my family the privacy we need to heal.Although I have enjoyed excellent medical and pharmacological treatment, I have come to learn that the particular combination of drugs prescribed for me in the past has caused some impairment in my judgment.
How does the "impaired judgment" story affect Chuck's potential perjury / obstruction of justice / tampering with evidence charges? I don't think "the drugs made me do it" is a legal defense to any of these charges, but I don't see anyone who believes the story being gung-ho to prosecute Chuck for obstructive conduct that was a result of his impairment.
A Little Respect...
All five candidates for Harris County District Attorney were invited to speak today with the board of directors of HCCLA, the Harris County Criminal Lawyers' Association, after a board meeting.
Only one of them bothered to show up: Kelly Siegler. (C.O. Bradford had spoken to the board before Chuck Rosenthal's meltdown.)
[Edit: Jim Leitner and Pat Lykos say that they were not aware of the invitation. It appears that Kelly and Pat both sought to speak to the HCCLA Board and were both emailed invitations, but Pat's did not reach her. My initial statement that all five were invited was based on a miscommunication. Pat had also wanted to speak to the HCCLA Board, and Jim is an HCCLA member.]
Kelly knew darn well that nobody in that room was likely to vote for her in the Republican primary - we're all either Democrats or Jim Leitner supporters or both. Even if we voted for her, she knows that we don't have enough political stick to make a difference in the Republican primary. [Edit: She also knew that HCCLA is not endorsing any candidate in this race.] But she came to talk to us anyway, because she wants to do a good job as DA and she recognizes that HCCLA represents an important group of stakeholders in the criminal justice system.
Copies
Ask any Harris County criminal-defense lawyer, and she'll tell you that criminal-defense lawyers should have copies of offense reports. Ask any Harris County felony chief prosecutor whether the defense lawyer is right, and I'll bet (based on my highly-scientific survey of 9% of such chiefs) that you'll get the same answer.
If I could file a notice of appearance on a case in Harris County and immediately make a photocopy of the offense report, I would be able to spend less time reviewing the prosecutor's file, and the prosecutor would be able to spend less time making his file available to me. We would all be able to go about the business of practicing law with much less time wasted in note-taking. The prosecutors I've talked to agree.
So if defense lawyers here and elsewhere and prosecutors (and even AHCL [Is she a prosecutor or a defense lawyer? Only her hairdresser knows for sure!]) are in agreement that defense counsel should have copies of offense reports, what has the holdup been for the last umpty-ump years?
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