Articles Posted in Kaufman County Criminal Defense Lawyer

I’m jumping late on the blawger iphone picture bandwagon. Here is a picture I took on August 20th on my iphone. It shows the front lawn of the Kaufman Courthouse at 2:30pm.

Why such a banal photo?

Well, the sprinklers were on at 2:30pm, during a rain storm, during the wettest August week on record. This photo is worth at least 1,000 words on government.

The Kaufman courthouse has been evacuated. Allegedly, someone called in a bomb threat.

Texas law makes it illegal to call in a fake bomb threat. Here is the law. The question is… is today’s bomb threat fake? I really hope so. And, is a courthouse a “public service”. If so, this is a State Jail Felony. If not, this is a misdemeanor.

§ 42.06. FALSE ALARM OR REPORT.

I am proud to announce the beginning of the Kaufman Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. KCDLA is open to all who practice criminal defense in Kaufman County. If you want to join, send me an email, or click below.

KCDLA

Visit this group

Yesterday I caught the last half of a death warrant hearing. This was the first case set for a death warrant in Kaufman County since the Supreme Court ruled that lethal injection was not cruel or unusual punishment.

What is a death warrant? In Texas, when a defendant who has been sentenced to death has exhausted his appeals the court may set an execution date. The date is up to the judge, however,Texas law requires that no convict be executed until after 6pm.

I had some other cases set that morning. I came in about 15 minutes late to the death warrant hearing. I walked in as the judge was reciting the procedural history of the case, the dates of the trial, the sentence, etc. The judge then ordered that on September 17th the defendant be injected with various substances until he died. The judge ended with “May God be with you”.

I’m getting a lot of searches for “Kaufman County District Courts.” A few of these readers may want logistical information, not criminal defense lawyer musings. Here is some basic information for the public

Kaufman County District Courts

Kaufman has two district courts. They handle felony criminal cases, family law cases, and other civil lawsuits. Both are located at the downtown courthouse.

I haven’t contributed to the blog discussion on the West Texas Polygamy raids because I know very little that is not on CNN. However, I have dealt with CPS in Kaufman County and in East Texas. It’s that experience I’d like to share.

I am not sure if this experience is reflective of all CPS cases in Kaufman. However, I was taken aback by the process.

A little background. I had a contested hearing on a removal by Kaufman CPS. CPS came in, stole the child, and wanted my client to sign off on the removal without a contested hearing. Right.