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All Shootings Good Shootings
After Cardan Spencer tried to kill Bobby Gerald Bennett in a gang-related shooting in October, Spencer lawyered up. One of his fellow gang members, Christopher Watson, talked to the police, though, and convinced them that Spencer was defending himself from Bennett, who was menacing Spencer and Watson with a knife. Bennett-who is not a gang member-got charged with aggravated assault.
Then the video emerged-a surveillance video taken by a neighbor. Spencer and his lawyer saw the video, and Spencer told his story then. The charges against Bennett were dropped, but Spencer was not charged.
As a result of this incident, the Dallas Police Department changed its policy regarding gang-related shootings. Instead of pressing gang members for statements immediately after shootings, police officers will advise them that they have seventy-two hours to get together and make up a story, and will provide them, during that time, with any video the police can find, so that they can conform their stories to the video.
Lying Law Prof Lies.
Me, October 24, 2013, here:
Professor Franks, when I say that you haven't addressed counterarguments, I mean that. I'm sorry that you find it tedious that you be expected to address why, for example, in light of Stevens's unambiguous rejection of a balancing test, you continue to insist that some sort of balancing test applies.As for your working paper, I've yet to see any counter to my point-by-point analysis of it, here: /2013/10/are-statutes-criminalizing-revenge-porn-constitutional.html
Mary Anne Franks, October 24, 2013, here:
Sadly, Mr. Bennett, I do not have endless amounts of time to read everything that people write about me or my ideas.
Three Things [updated]
Three things you should read:
1. This Is Why Poor People's Bad Decisions Make Perfect Sense [update: it's bullshit].
2. Harris County Texas: Where the Innocent Must Plead Guilty to Regain Their Liberty
3. Understanding and Working with Students and Adults from Poverty (via Scott Greenfield).
I've written here time and again about the problem of the working poor in Harris County's criminal justice system: ((Hyphens are important.)) people who make bail are denied court-appointed counsel because they've made bail.
So the guy who has to get back to work to feed his family makes bail, if he can afford a hundred and fifty bucks to a bonding company, is told by the court ((Either by the judge or by the court coordinator, so that the judge can have plausible deniability. Yes, Jay Karahan of Harris County Criminal Court at Law Number Eight, I'm talking about you.)) either that he must sell everything he owns and come back with proof and maybe then he'll get an appointed lawyer, or that he simply can't have a court-appointed lawyer because he made bail.
What Is This I Don't Even
You get an unfavorable opinion in the appellate court. You file a motion for rehearing. Your adversary files a response in which he says three things:
"The amendment to Section 402.010(a) of the Texas Government Code requiring such notice from a party did not become effective until September 1, 2013, after this case was briefed."
"In its Third Issue for Rehearing the State admits error.... That admission of error should render moot the Motion for Rehearing and any further litigation."
"[I]n an appeal to this Court's emotions the State improperly requests that this Court consider facts outside the record. The State's rendition here of [those facts] is untruthful."
Do you:
A) Tell the court that you weren't admitting error, so that your motion for rehearing was not moot.
B) Tell the court that your rendition of the facts was truthful.
C) Tell the court that "Section 402.010 became effective on June 17, 2011."
Morals Policing
Gideon (A Public Defender) recently pointed me toward a little oddity in the penal laws of the Nutmeg State:
(a) Any person who (1) wilfully or unlawfully causes or permits any child under the age of sixteen years to be placed in such a situation that...the morals of such child are likely to be impaired, or does any act likely to impair the...morals of any such child...shall be guilty of a class C felony....
A class C felony carries a penalty up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
The State of Connecticut thinks it can put you in prison for doing anything likely to impair the morals of a child. That is some Texas-Legislature-grade crazy there.
State legislatures are where morals go to die. If a day goes by that I don't teach my kids something that would make the dimwitted authoritarian yahoos in Austin (or Hartford) cringe, I'm not doing my job. Whover came up with the idea that a prosecutor or a jury might have the judgment required to decide if someone else's kid's morals were being impaired is a grade-A statist numbskull.
Dallas Morning News' Credulity = Incredibility [updated because math is hard]
[Update: The DMN corrected its error.]
In Houston alone, about 300,000 sex trafficking cases are prosecuted each year.
(Dallas Morning News Editorial: Cracking down on sex traffickers).
The number is such obvious nonsense that anyone who gave it any serious thought would decry it. (Amy Alkon and Walter Olson got there before me.) But the DMN blithely published it as fact.
In Harris County, according to Texas Office of Court Administration statistics, 2,650 36,862 new felony cases were filed and 5,819 68,142 new misdemeanor cases were filed in 2012. (( Those numbers seem low to me, given the crowds in the courthouse lobbies but I think the source can be trusted.My search-fu was defective.)) So the total of all new cases filed in Harris County is nowhere near the 300,000 sex trafficking cases asserted by the Dallas Morning News.
A Defense in a Failure-to-Report-Child-Abuse Case
A person commits an offense if the person has cause to believe that a child's physical or mental health or welfare has been or may be adversely affected by abuse or neglect and knowingly fails to report as provided in this chapter. An offense under this section is a Class A misdemeanor....
Texas Family Code Section 261.09.
The Harris County DA has charged a high-school principal and two assistant principals with failure to report child abuse. The DA has a high hurdle to overcome if the defendants mount a determined defense.
In early October, a [17-year-old] student came to...an ESL teacher, telling her that a teacher had touched his genitals, according to court documents. Hughes took him to [one of the charged assistant principals]. From there [the other assistant principal and the principal] were both made aware of the allegations, according to court records, but failed to report this to authorities.
Untitled
"U.S. forces can only enter Afghan homes in extraordinary circumstances when the life or limb of Americans is at stake."
You know what this means?
Residents of Kabul are more secure from US forces invading their homes than are residents of Boston.
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals: Client's File is Client's.
From Ex Parte McCann, decided today by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals:
Albert James Turner was charged with capital murder. At trial, he was represented by Patrick McCann and Tyrone Moncriffe. In June 2011, Turner was found guilty and sentenced to death. The trial court appointed counsel for Turner's direct appeal and the Office of Capital Writs ("OCW") to handle Turner's postconviction writ. As part of its investigation, OCW asked Turner to authorize the release of his trial file from McCann. Turner refused to sign the release because OCW is a "state agency," and he wanted to speak with his sister before moving forward. Lacking Turner's authorization, McCann refused to release the file believing that his client was invoking his right to keep his privileged information confidential.In response, OCW filed a motion asking the trial court to order McCann to turn the file over. After a hearing, the trial court ordered trial counsel to relinquish Turner's trial file, and McCann refused. He then filed a motion in this Court for leave to file petitions for writs of mandamus and prohibition. While McCann's motion was pending, OCW successfully withdrew as Turner's habeas counsel. Subsequently, we dismissed McCann's motion as moot because OCW, a "state agency," no longer represented Turner. McCann v. Elliot, Nos. WR-76,984-01, WR-76,984-02, 2012 WL 752612 (Tex. Crim. App. Mar. 7, 2012) (per curiam) (not designated for publication).The trial court then appointed new habeas counsel, James Rytting, to represent Turner in his postconviction application, and Rytting, like OCW, sought Turner's trial file for investigatory purposes. Rytting stated that he visited Turner twice in person after his appointment, and he agreed that McCann's characterization of Turner was correct in that Turner did not want the file turned over. Rytting also explained that, based on his visits with Turner, if McCann gave the file to Turner, Rytting would never see it. For his part, McCann continued to refuse to relinquish the trial file based on his understanding of his client's wishes. In a second hearing, the trial court ordered McCann to turn over his file again. After failing to comply with the trial court's second order, the court found McCann in contempt.
Meet Scarecrow's Mother
Via Free-Range Kids:
My son is only 4, and I have pretty much put the fear of God in him about strangers! It's a constant conversation (especially lately) that is not at all sugar coated! He knows that there are very bad people that can take him and hurt him. I've told him that he would never see us again, and reminded him that there's not a thing in the world that a stranger offers him (candy, puppy, bike, etc) that we can't give him. I also told him that "crazy people" have Spiderman webs and even if you just walk up to their car, they can spin a web and get you! Over dramatic? Maybe... but I would rather scare my child than put flyers up with his picture on it! let me also remind you that there is a substantial amount of crime that doesn't make it to the 6 o'clock news...
Anxiety is not good for us. Our bodies aren't made to steep in cortisol:
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