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Recent Blog Posts
The Hunting of Justice (An Agony in Eight Fits)
We have heard talk of "justice." Is there anybody who knows what justice is? No one on earth can measure out justice. Can you look at any man and say what he deserves-whether he deserves hanging by the neck until dead or life in prison or thirty days in prison or a medal? The human mind is blind to all who seek to look in at it and to most of us that look out from it. Justice is something that man knows little about. He may know something about charity and understanding and mercy, and he should cling to those as far as he can.-Clarence Darrow
John Kindley's post here is built on a straw man:
What has so offended RCDLs, though, is my philosophizing about criminal defense, and specifically, my continued bristling at the idea that the job of the prosecutor is to "do justice," while the job of the criminal defense attorney is merely "to defend."
What John misses, and what I think a more experienced criminal-defense lawyer of his acumen and interests would see, is that the prosecutor's job isn't really to do-or even to seek-justice.
Small Lesson
At the request of a colleague out of state, I put the call out on a Texaswide criminal defense listserv for the names of some lawyers who would be good to handle a felony drug case in a faraway Texas small town.
As the "I can handle those" responses came rolling in, I realized: that's not at all what I'm looking for. I don't want to know who thinks he can handle the case; I want to know who other people think can handle the case. If one of the "oo-oo-pick-me-pick-me" emails had recommended someone else as well ("I handle such cases regularly; Joe Blow does an excellent job as well") it would have had much more credibility and I would have given the out-of-state colleague both names.
Which is almost what I did: I didn't forward any of the purely self-promoting emails, but when a Houston lawyer whom I respect responded to say that he had an office not far from the faraway small town, and that another lawyer out there was a "hard worker, smart, and not afraid to try a case," I sent both names to our out-of-state colleague.
A(n Ex-)Prosecutor's Principles
Quoth Vincent Bugliosi, in a comment posted by John Kindley:
‘Everyone is entitled to be represented by an attorney' is the idealistic chant often recited by defense attorneys as justification for representing even the most vicious criminals in our society. The concept is unassailable, but idealism is rarely what motivates lawyers who represent guilty defendants. They take the work because trying cases is their livelihood, and they are ambitious to advance their careers. These motivations, while not improper, are clearly not idealistic.True idealism would be involved in a hypothetical situation such as the following. Suppose a family is brutally murdered in a small town, and none of the six lawyers in town is willing to represent the suspect because the enraged citizens are all convinced of the suspect's guilt and no lawyer wants to be ostracized in the community for attempting to get the suspect off. Finally, one attorney steps forward and says, ‘I don't care what my friends at the Rotary Club and the First Baptist Church say. This is America, and everyone is entitled under the Sixth Amendment to our Constitution to be represented by an attorney.'That would be idealism. I, too, would represent a defendant - even one guilty of murder - if I were the only lawyer available, because the right to counsel is a sacred right in our society and much more important than any personal predilection I might have. But this type of situation simply does not exist in a city like Los Angeles, where 35,000 lawyers stumble over each other's feet for cases. So I am free to follow my inclination.
PSA: The Left-Turn Yield
When you come to an intersection with a sign like this...
Instead, pull forward into the intersection.
If there is another left-turn-yield lane in the oncoming traffic, pull about a third of the way into the intersection, or as far as you can while leaving yourself and the guy making the corresponding left turn in the other direction leeway to make the turn. If there isn't, pull two thirds of the way into the intersection, or as far as you can while leaving yourself leeway to make the turn.
Yes, you will block the way of cross traffic, so that they can't go when their light turns green until you have cleared the intersection; this is okay. In fact, this is the immediate objective. At some point after that green circle turns red, the oncoming traffic will stop; since you are already out in the intersection, cross traffic will have to wait for you to complete your perfectly-legal (YMMV in California) turn.
It's the safest way to make the turn; it's also the most considerate to the drivers behind you (who, by the way, would also appreciate it if you hung up the phone at this point).
The Meat of the Coconut: Yet Another Aspiring Victim
From the mailbag:
Apparently because she wanted me to comment on it, someone named Leslie Brodie ("religious leader in the community") sent me a copy of a grievance she filed against California Supreme Court Justice Marvin Baxter. In relevant part:
When asked to express an opinion concerning the qualifications of Justice Cantil-Sakauye, Justice Baxter resorted to an extremely rude, unprofessional, and inappropriate description. Specifically, he stated, "I am very impressed with her, the manner in which she gets to the meat of the coconut on issues." Notably, the nation of the Philippines is blessed to be the largest grower and producer of coconuts, and related products, in the world.Simply stated, no racial or ethnic group should be mocked through the use of examples and metaphors concerning popular foods, or other items which the group is associated with. This is particularly true when such comments are made by a Justice of the California Supreme Court.As such, the California Commission on Judicial Performance should reprimand Justice Baxter for resorting to and using stereotypical racial epithets.
Business Plan: Never Lose
Back in March (sometimes posts percolate for a few months before bubbling to the surface) Norm Pattis wrote something about about Gerry Spence that caught my attention.
I recall years ago his complaining that he could not get into court. His cases kept settling. I offered him a chance to come on board in a gang murder. He declined. "I can't win that case," he said.
I wonder: what if a criminal-defense lawyer took only cases that she could win?There would be triage issues. The potential client's account of the case might allow the lawyer to rule out taking the case, but it would rarely be enough to convince him to take it. The lawyer would have to quickly investigate the facts in the cases that looked like potential winners. To know that she could win a case, the lawyer would have to know how she was going to win the case. She would have to know the law and her own capabilities.
She would have to be very good at defending cases. She wouldn't have to be as good as Gerry Spence, but she couldn't be a run-of-the-mill trial lawyer; if she were, the pickings of cases she knew she could win would be slim.
A Legal Irony—Federal Firearms Law
For my fellow law geeks:
18 USC §921, which defines terms for federal firearms crimes, defines a conviction of a "crime punishable by imprisonment for a term exceeding one year" in terms of state law, so a Texas deferred adjudication probation for a felony is not a conviction, and does not bar firearms possession.
§921's definition of "misdemeanor crime of domestic violence," by contrast, doesn't incorporate state law, so a deferred for a misdemeanor domestic violence assault may bar firearms possession under federal law.
The bottom line? For federal firearms law, a domestic violence aggravated assault deferred is better than a domestic violence assault deferred.
10 Practical Rules for Dealing with the Borderline Personality
I get to deal with a whole lot of crazy at work. The following rules are applicable to lots of flavors of crazy, but I've had a heavy dose of borderline personalities lately. So here are my ten rules for dealing with borderline personalities and other crazy people:
If you don't have to deal with a crazy person, don't.
You can't outsmart crazy. [Thanks to Lisa J] You also can't fix crazy. (You could outcrazy it, but that makes you crazy too.)
When you get in a contest of wills with a crazy person, you've already lost.
The crazy person doesn't have as much to lose as you.
Your desired outcome is to get away from the crazy person.
You have no idea what the crazy person's desired outcome is.
The crazy person sees anything you have done as justification for what she's about to do.
Anything nice you do for the crazy person, she will use as ammunition later.
Texas's Non-Sex Sex Registration Offenses
I started writing the list that follows just to wrap my head around the array of offenses that can result in sex offender registration in Texas (with more coming every legislative session). While I was writing it, though, (11)-(13) jumped out at me: unlawful restraint, kidnapping, and aggravated kidnapping are sex-offender-registration offenses if they are committed (and if the judge makes an affirmative finding that they were committed) against children under 17.
Unlawful restraint, kidnapping, and aggravated kidnapping are not necessarily sex-related offenses. Yet committing any these offenses against a child triggers registration as a sex offender. For example, a divorced dad who keeps his thirteen-year-old child without mom's consent outside his visitation period might be committing felony unlawful restraint; if he hides the child, he might be committing felony kidnapping. Either way, the dad who is convicted or takes deferred adjudication probation faces at least ten years of sex-offender registration.
Sparta Townson, “Internet Guru Girl”
I've known Sparta Townson for years, since she was Sparta Komissarova with Martindale-Hubbell / Lawyers.com (in unholy alliance at the time with LexisNexis). I may have done a little business with her for a little while, and then stopped. There were no hard feelings, but she was a salesperson, and she wasn't selling anything I needed.
Then Sparta left Martindale-Hubbell (some say she was fired; she says she left). Her next stop was at a company called "The Attorney Store" (because if you're going to commoditize lawyers, you might as well be upfront about it) where she was a Senior Sales Executive in 2008:
I went with this awesome up and coming company and they are offering hands down some of the best stuff. I'm no hard push, but would like to meet with you.I'm going to be making a trip to Houston in a few weeks and would like to make an appt w/you. This company is launching major billboards all over Houston and suburbs, phone books ads, radio, etc in Houston like they did Dallas metroplex.
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