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Recent Blog Posts
Compliance Testing
From Channel 5 in Dallas/Fort Worth:
Some drivers along a busy North Fort Worth street on Friday were stopped at police roadblock and directed into a parking lot, where they were asked by federal contractors for samples of their breath, saliva and even blood.It was part of a government research study aimed at determining the number of drunken or drug-impaired drivers.
This-detaining drivers and requiring them to submit to tests before they can leave-is wrong in so many ways. In Texas, even sobriety checkpoints are illegal. So what were the local cops thinking?
Fort Worth police Sgt. Kelly Peel said he could not immediately locate any record of Fort Worth officers being involved in the roadblock but said he was still checking Monday evening.A spokesman for nearby Haltom City police said his department was not involved.NBC DFW confirmed that the survey was done by a government contractor, the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, which is based in Calverton, Md.A company spokeswoman referred questions to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
Pop Law
Most people who aren't securities lawyers-other lawyers included-don't have opinions on what SEC regulations say.
Most people who aren't probate lawyers-other lawyers included-don't have opinions on the best way to write a will.
Yet everybody-other lawyers included-has opinions about what the criminal law says, and how to try a criminal case. And virtually all of them are wrong.
Everybody-other criminal lawyers included-has opinions about what First Amendment law is. And virtually all of them are wrong.
Almost everybody thought I was crazy for attacking Texas's online-solicitation-of-a-minor statute for violating the First Amendment, because it's solicitation, and everybody knows that solicitation of children is not protected by the First Amendment. And besides, talking dirty to minors couldn't possibly be protected speech, because it's talking dirty to minors. But the fact that the Texas Legislature calls it "solicitation" doesn't make it solicitation, the fact that the Texas Legislature calls them "minors" doesn't make them minors, and speech-even dirty talk to minors-is protected unless it isn't.
Fake Scott Greenfield
Generated by Doctor Nerve's Markov Page, which "allows the writer to type in prose or poetry, and submit it to a Markov Chain engine. This engine munches through the writer's text, performs a statistical analysis, and spits out statistically similar text":
Proposition 6 in one capacity eventually end the retirement age, aside from not just after the courts. It's bad for the notion that judges, and were brilliant later. If they don't seek to decide the notion that there are at their game." So I voted in their clerks? Whether a margin of the bench, old people become painfully clear. And anyone a judge is based solely on what sitting in the age for the first place, or turned sour, lazy or turned sour, lazy back when, they are really don't see it. It's bad for the New York election proposed to 39%. Chief Judge Lippman said in their failing competence exposed? This changes the bench, old people we do their first job of a burden. We shouldn't congratulate someone upon being a while can fill their jokes. If they don't kiss ass enough or turned sour, lazy back when, they were like before the problem is that people become judges.
Law-Talking Dude
I had a client pleading guilty in felony court last week; the sitting judge was out, and retired judge Mike Wilkinson was visiting, and took the plea.
Wilkinson talks really fast, and as I was listening to his plea admonishments it occurred to me that to my client, fluent in English but not in Legalese, the judge must sound something like this:
On Mitigated Speech
In a comment to this post, in which I asked, "Why is it that when you tell people the truths they don't want to hear, you are ‘angry' and ‘acrimonious'?" "Josh C" wrote:
Blunt answers, unpadded with courtesy, come accross as rude. That is a feature of English. See e.g. http://www.courts.state.hi.us/docs/CADR/CADR_LaBelle_MitigatedSpeech.pdfIt's like failing to use the subjunctive in German.
The link led to a brief article from Hawaii's alternative-dispute-resolution center discussing "mitigated," "deferential," or "indirect" speech:
...Tannen...argues that indirect speech does not necessarily reveal powerlessness, a lack of self-confidence, or anything else about the character of the speaker. She simply says that it is a natural and fundamental part of human communication. She notes that such speech varies by region, ethnicity, class, and gender, and can cause confusion and misunderstanding depending on the situation and the means of expression. For example, she points to the workplace as a place where we need to communicate with one another to get things done. And the way we choose to do this depends on who is being addressed-the boss, a peer, or a subordinate-and how we choose to communicate with each other-from commands to requests that don't sound like requests but instead sound like an observation or a description of a situation. For example, she notes that issuing orders indirectly is typically the prerogative of those in power-the boss, the military officer, or the parent- because they can always use more direct ways or commands-"just do it!"-to accomplish the same end.
Another Writing Sample
Here‘s a Motion for Rehearing filed by the Harris County District Attorney's Office, and here, for your enjoyment, is my response (link unavailable)
Setting up Obihai OBi100 and Vocalocity
This is not a tech blog, but when I spend time finding an answer to a tech question that Google doesn't have, I'm going to publish it here.
I use Vocalocity for my office phones. It's a voice-over-IP service. I have one extension ringing ing the downtown office, and one extension ringing at the same time in the Heights office. I also have various forwarding schemes set up for various times during the day.
I had an analog phone connected to Vocalocity at the Heights office via a Cisco SPA2102. It worked fine for a while, but lately it has been disconnecting outgoing calls after thirty seconds, which is inconvenient. So I ordered an Obihai OBi100
Nobody had documented what to plug in where on the OBi100 setup page. So here you go...
This is Vocalocity's "Devices" tab for the phone extension I wanted to set up. The blurred number next to "sip-" is my Vocalocity account number. The MAC address is that of the OBi100; I inputted it. The SIP/Authorization ID is Vocalocity-assigned:
Law Geek: Writing is Thinking
When the gentleman from the Texas Attorney General's Office called me on Thursday to ask if I would agree to the AG's petition to intervene and motion to extend time to file a motion for rehearing in the Court of Criminal Appeals, I think he was a bit put-out that I declined. ((Or it may have been my tone.)) I wasn't sure whether I was opposed or not, but I'm not going to agree to anything the State wants without at least reading its motion first.
Boy, am I glad I said "No." Here are the Attorney General's motions; I hope you'll enjoy my response here's a link if the PDF doesn't show up inline): sorry, the link is unavailable
Be the Student, or Be the Lesson
From James in the hinterlands ("Prosecutor and Defense Attorney Since 1968"), regarding Robb Fickman's guest post ((No, I do not accept guest posts from strangers. Robb is a special exception. He and I have a deal: neither of us goes to jail for contempt alone. Since he's likely some day to be my celly, I try to keep him happy.)) on Ken Anderson:
Brilliant, of course, but I'm connecting for a separate reason. I have recently started a blog and would like to cross pollinate with people such we yourself who obviously see the world the same as I do. So I'd like to start by re-printing your blog with your permission, and to have a little "about the author" at the end. If you're interested, please let me know. My fledgling blog is keywordrichblogname.com. Thanks, and thanks for the very well expressed opinion; I've been having trouble with a number of defense lawyers who feel that 10-days is a signal of something. Maybe it is, but to get that deal then, at least they should have forced him to publicly admit what he did, like so many persecutors press pleading defendants to do instead of NC pleas.Keep blogging.
Not So Egregious? Not So Severe?
In Williams v. State, the First Court of Appeals today upheld the 182nd District Court's denial of a mistrial, after sustaining the defense's objection to the following argument by prosecutor Justin Keiter:
What did the defendant have access to before trial? He's had years to craft a story. As we said in voir dire, we have an open file policy. They have access to copies of police reports, statements, and photos. They can build a whole defense that fits everything that we have. That's just how the game is. It doesn't mean they get credit for it or you believe it.
It's a foul argument, striking at the defendant over the shoulders of defense counsel.
Here's a taste of what Justice Terry Jennings had to say in his dissent:
Here we go yet again-an appellate court admonishes attorneys not to engage in improper jury arguments, but the court itself actually glosses over the egregious nature of the complained-of argument and the actual harm caused by such arguments, not only to those accused of criminal offenses, but to the very administration of justice in Texas. Indeed, the majority's opinion in this case will actually encourage such improper behavior and ensure that it continues. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.
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