Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Probable cause? Who needs probable cause?

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Yesterday the State of Texas came one step closer to ending a 15-year old ban on DWI checkpoints with the passage of S.B. 298 which would a...
Monday, March 30, 2009

A prosecutor responds

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In light of the Batson incident in Harris County that I blogged about last week, I decided to give the prosecutors in question a chance to ...
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Yet another bad idea

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There's a rumor circulating around that the Harris County District Attorney's Office will require a sworn statement from defendants ...
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Parsing Judge Hughes' statement

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parse - (v), etymology: Latin pars orationis  part of speech; to examine in a minute way : analyze critically (having trouble parsing. ..ex...
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Saturday, March 28, 2009

Call me Ishmael

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Apparently the Harris County District Attorney's Office thinks it's a good idea to train baby prosecutors how to try cases by refu...

We're trained professionals

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According to the NHTSA Manual entitled DWI Detection and Standardized Field Sobriety Testing , when conducting the horizontal gaze nystagmus...
Friday, March 27, 2009

Who's the real victim?

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Reaction to Harris County DA Pat Lykos' decision to suspend and reassign two prosecutors for a  Batson  violation has been interesting, ...
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Thursday, March 26, 2009

Harris County prosecutors disciplined for Batson violation

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On Thursday, Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos did something that signified the end of the good ol' boy network at 1201 Franklin...
1 comment:

An exaggerated sense of self-importance

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I had to take care of a matter in a justice of the peace court downtown the other day and was surprised to see a metal detector inside the l...

You can't always believe what you (think) you see

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On Wednesday The Justice Project released a scathing report entitled " Convicting the Innocent: Texas Justice Derailed " in which...

Getting my ducks in a row for an ALR hearing

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Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Judge Killer responds

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On March 24, 2009, Judge Sharon Keller, the presiding judge of the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, filed her response to the State Commiss...

Judges to receive ignition interlock "training"

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The Texas Center for the Judiciary is offering an ignition interlock device  workshop for Texas judges entitled " Blow 'n' Go ...
1 comment:
Tuesday, March 24, 2009

MADD about interlocks

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An Ohio state legislator has introduced a bill to make ignition interlock devices mandatory for citizens convicted of driving while intoxic...
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The selective abandonment of moral hazard

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The Federal government announced plans yesterday to use our  money to purchase so-called "toxic debts" from private banks in an a...
Monday, March 23, 2009

The mood altering sounds of Humble

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I received a rather peculiar phone call this afternoon from a man who had pled guilty to driving while intoxicated in Harris County. He wasn...
Saturday, March 21, 2009

What time do you have?

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What time is it right now? I have no idea because the clock on the computer, the clock on my cellphone and the two clocks in my bedroom all...
Friday, March 20, 2009

No quick fix to Galveston's woes

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For those of you who don't know, the island of Galveston was hit extremely hard when Hurricane Ike came ashore last September. Reminders...
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Thursday, March 19, 2009

Making it easier for vampires

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Texas State Senator Bob Deuell (R-Greenville) has introduced S.B. 261 that would make it easier for the vampires to draw the blood of citi...
Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Upon further reflection...

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On the night of St. Patrick's Day, law enforcement officers in Montgomery County, Texas, set up a DWI checkpoint in The Woodlands -- at ...

The tail wagging the dog

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In most courts the prosecutor negotiates pleas with defense attorneys and unrepresented citizens. The City of Houston Municipal Court is not...
Monday, March 16, 2009

Zen moment for the day

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As I was heading down to the office this morning through the fog I noticed a police car coming in my direction. As he passed I saw that he w...
Saturday, March 14, 2009

Vindication for a client

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The other day I represented a woman who was charged with failing to register a cat, failing to vaccinate a cat and failing to restrain a (st...
1 comment:
Friday, March 13, 2009

Anatomy of an exoneration

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On March 12, 2009, Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos and Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt released a chronology, entitled the Rache...
1 comment:
Thursday, March 12, 2009

He must've been drinking

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It may very well be true that no man is an island unto himself, but that hasn't stopped Scott Allan Witmer of Northampton Borough, Penns...