I often have a hard time quickly explaining to my non-lawyer friends exactly how the appeals system is stacked against criminal defendants. Fortunately today’s case, Barnes vs. State, crystallizes how the constitutional rights of defendants are effectively waived through nonsense technicalities. It’s a Kaufman County Drug case, appealed to the…
Today’s case of the day is Michael Scott Page vs. The State of Texas. It’s a Kaufman County weapons case that was appealed to the 5th Circuit in Dallas. What happened? Michael was out on bond (agg assault). While on bond Michael told his neighbor he we was going to…
Today’s Dallas Court of Appeals case of the day is- Lowell Merritt vs. The State of Texas! What happened? From the opinion. The events leading up to appellant’s indictment on a felony retaliation charge began in July 2007 when appellant’s neighbor reported that appellant “cussed” his wife. After reviewing the…
I recently watched the Christohper Hicthens/Tony Blair debate on whether religion is a force for good in the world. To paraphrase Mr. Hitchens; “You can expect good people do good things, and bad people do bad things. To get a good person to do a bad thing you need religion.”…
As Kaufman County Bar President I’ve been working to start a bar philanthropy project. I’m a little worried about my ability to motivate my colleagues. Everyone is really busy, we don’t have a lot of time, the economy sucks etc. I don’t even have a Vice President to boss around…
“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right… to be confronted with the witnesses against him” 6th Amendment- US Constitution You know what I don’t use. A web cam. I’ve never installed one at my office or home. My macbook has one built in but it’s always off.…
Remember the right to counsel? In simpler times if you were in custody and asked for an attorney, the police had to wait for counsel to arrive before beggining their good cop/bad cop routine. Such antiquated rights like the 6th Amendment and Article 1 Section of the Texas Constitution are…
I’ve discovered there is an inverse relationship between blogging and legal work. I’m grateful to be busy in this economy, but it’s giving me blog fail. What I do have time for is another roundup!! On Sotomayor- First, I’ll admit I have not done an exhaustive study of her opinions.…
Jury selection is art and science, part Dr. Phil, part Dr. Freud with some law thrown in for good measure. It’s an area law schools provide no practical instruction for, yet no lawyer can try a case without knowing how to select a jury. What law students are taught is…
Anyone who reads this blawg regulalry knows that I enjoy taking a current news story and adding some information on the law for the lay public, or some opinion not in the original piece (e.g. pot should be legal, the 4th Amendment matters). News reaction is not the pinnacle of…