Criminal Law

Yes Yes I am a republican

Posted on October 18, 2007
I have been registered to vote since the day I turned 18 years old. I have attended a presidential inaugeration ( I was in high school) and have worked on campaigns for democrats as well as republican throughout my years opting to support the best candidate instead of just my parties' person...

Renesting

Posted on October 11, 2007
Every time I finish a big trial (i.e. 2005 murder trial) I have to clean. This drives Jack crazy. If my office is already in order which it usually is I attack his office (his usually is not). Lucky for Jack I am rearranging. I had ten years of old jury instructions, seven years of calenders and ten years of pocket parts...

John Ashcroft: The First and a Quarter Kind of Loyalty

Posted on June 06, 2007
Like PD Dude, I noted the attempted John Ashcroft sickbed hustle by Alberto Gonzales (then White House counsel) and Andrew Card. (then White House Chief of Staff) The short story is that the acting Attorney General, James Comey, would not sign off on the legality of the NSA's domestic spying program, so the White House sent Gonzales and Card to Ashcroft's hospital room to try to get Ashcroft to sign off on the reauthorization of the program...

Thank God for Understanding Spouses

Posted on June 05, 2007
Katie Hayden's husband Bob and another passenger took matters in hand when a pair of passengers were causing a disturbance on an airline flight. Bob is a retired cop, the other passenger a retired Marine.During the fracas, Katie kept reading her book; an agitated woman ahead of her wondered how Katie could just keep reading...

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Dead Man Laughing - Chino's aren't

Posted on June 05, 2007
Patrick Knight will be killed by the State of Texas June 26, but he's facing his end with more humor than most, and it's making some parts of the pro-death camp unhappy.He's soliciting jokes, and will select the best one to tell as his last words.No profane, vulgar, prison or death penalty jokes, please...

Five Days

Posted on June 05, 2007
Five days. That's how long a recent client took to get picked up for the same offense as the one to which I pled him. In the grand scheme of things, it was a piddly case, and the DA wanted to get rid of the case, too, so we were able to make everyone happy...

Justice vs. Vengance and Efficiency

Posted on May 28, 2007
As I was writing this post on the defendant who cold-cocked one of his jurors and whose case was mistried, I was thinking that if more people read this blog, my post would pull an indignant comment or two. It did, from Anonymous, who commented on two posts in a row...

Good Question on the Ethics of Calling Cops Liars

Posted on May 27, 2007
In the last post I was talking about having to convince a jury a cop is lying. Anonymous left a comment, wondering whether it was ethical to call the cop a liar if I didn't really think the cop was lying.Well, in that case, I don't have to worry; this cop has lost the presumption of truthfulness by lying on previous cases...

Two for Two

Posted on May 26, 2007
My client's sister and I were discussing the cost/benefit of trial/plea (with client's permission, of course) when she asked me of I was a public defender or a lawyer - I told her "both."A little while later, Janet overheard her speaking to their mom, giving a decent account of me, noting: "He's good, mama, he's a public defender and a lawyer!"My advice to my client was to take the 12 years , out after 35% rather than rolling the dice on 10-to-life and having to serve 98%...

Client Attacks His...

Posted on May 23, 2007
Richard Glawson was on trial for shooting a police officer (and a handicapped guy's dog, among other things) when he attacked his...Juror. A grey-haired older man, as the jurors were leaving court for the weekend. The DA had asked to chain Glawson, but the Judge said no...

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Posted on May 18, 2007
After a somewhat convoluted set of circumstances flowing from last year's election loss, I was offered a successful private practice - doing domestic law. The departing attorney pays him/herself a little over 20% more than I make, plus a car, cell phone and insurance...

A Good Start to a Long Day

Posted on May 03, 2007
(If you want the short cut to the good stuff skip down to the bottom. )Just finished a full day in the courtroom, most of that taken up by several probable cause hearings. In this jurisdiction, these hearings are basically mini-trials, but with a "some evidence of illegal activity by your client" burden of proof...

The Wedding Dance

Posted on May 03, 2007
The Wedding Dance is a choreographed piece to lock witnesses (usually police officers) into their reports to make it harder for them to weasel their way of out omissions, errors, and inconsistencies.If they try to go outside their report, they will have to choose whether to admit that they're hiding something or that they're incompetent...

Can I get a trial?

Posted on April 18, 2007
Well after spending three days picking a jury puting on 10 witnesses out of 25 the dang thing gets mistried. I've only announced ready four times. GRRRRRR. Anyhoo time to get reading on the next one. Jack and I have been bouncing in and out of trials lately he's been kicking my butt on numbers so i'm going to have to get back into the courtroom...

A Second Kind of Loyalty

Posted on March 29, 2007
A while ago, Skelly had a post about why people go into public defense; from a profound belief in the fundamentals of the Constitution and/or a strong anti-authoritarian streak. This post is about people who are stirred to act on that profound belief, and the price they pay for it...

Phil Spector - Unambiguous on everything except the request for counsel?

Posted on March 23, 2007
Another study says ugly looking people get found guilty more often than good looking people. Phil Spector's got a haircut and a venire of 300 for his murder trial. The Smoking Gun has a partial transcript of an interview with a police officer. TSG's transcript starts at page 18, where the cop is (apperently) verifying with Spector that "you wanna get ahold of your [attorney, Robert Shapiro]" Unfortunately, Phil Spector had some serious diarrhea of the mouth (and serious potty mouth, too) to include trashing the dead woman in the case...

What's With the No New Posts, eh?

Posted on March 23, 2007
I'm not sure why I haven't been posting much - I've got a few reasons floating around.1. Burnout. Maybe... At least part of my lack of posting has been a feeling that most of what I've been writing shows a good bit of contempt for defendants - my clients...

AAJ trial comp 2

Posted on March 07, 2007
We went we saw and we got home towned. WE didn't have the right twang to our accents to go forward. BUT, the kids learned alot as did I and they represented their law school with dignity and honor. I'm very proud of them. So I"m sitting here listening to Etta James and if you haven't heard her your missing out she sings "At Last" one of my all time favorite songs...

AAJ Competition

Posted on February 23, 2007
Well one week left before I take my former ATLA now AAJ trial team to compete against law schools across the nation. I'm nervous for them. Will they win, I have no idea. We are scrimmaging a law school in the next state for practice this weekend. I guess I will have a better idea...

Paraphilia Phriday 12

Posted on February 16, 2007
Today's paraphilia is Hemophilia:But I don't think young Prince Alexis would like that, so I'll use a Latin prefix.How about Sanguiphilia, instead? (Those who prefer Greek could use hemolagnia instead.)Apparently young Ms. Sutton would like that. According to an unnamed man, who was using drugs and alcohol with her, he let her tie him up but got cold feet when she brought out a knife, stabbed him (lightly, I presume) and told him she liked to drink blood...

Women's Heart Month

Posted on February 16, 2007
The center of Disease Control and Prevention released a study this week stating that the top five states with heart disease are West Virginia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Tennessee and Oklahoma. The five lowest were Colorado, DC, Hawaii, Minnesota and Montana...

From the Mouths of Babes - Evidence Rule 613 vs. 801(d)(1)(A)

Posted on February 14, 2007
I recently helped Professor Janet with one of her classes. One of the things the kids had to work on was laying a foundation for impeachment by prior inconsistent statements. They had to unlearn some previous (not Janet's) mis-teaching, but one thing they always got out was that the witness was under oath and subject to perjury...

Check ... and Mate.

Posted on February 13, 2007
I just got a report from the police lab. Statistically speaking, if there were 25,000 planet Earths, then I might find some other guy besides my client whose saliva was on the bag of drugs that the police found after the foot chase of my guy ended.On a clear night, one can see about 2500 stars without magnification...

Shout out to the Trial DOG!!!

Posted on February 08, 2007
Jack just recieved a not guilty on a Robbery with Firearm!!!!Janet

New Blood

Posted on January 19, 2007
Meet Terri:From her bio:upscale image and zany personality...falls into place with the rest of the crowd...very serious about her career...wise-cracking upbeat character...

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