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I just received my acceptance letter for the CJA (federal court appointed criminal defeense) panel. I am awaiting my first federal criminal appointment and devouring as much federal law as I can in anticipation. One book I highly recommend is “Busted by the Feds” by Larry Fassler.

BBTF was written by a federal inmate and offers a first hand look at the federal criminal process. Highly cynical and often dispararing of lawyers (prosecutors and defense alike), BBTF offers a first hand look into the perils of plea negotiations and sentencing. If you have a family member of loved one facing federal prosecution BBTF is a great place to start.

Why the wheel?

Austin DWI lawyer Jamie Spencer has started Texas’ first collborative criminal defense lawyer blog- Affirmative Links.Until now every blawger had to be a solo publishing machine; capable of generating interesting new content on a regular basis. No other media model works this way. Newspapers, magazines, bar journals- are all collborative efforts. It’s one reason that so many new blawgs fail. It’s hard to manage an active law practice and dedicate time to regular updating, posting, editing, etc.

Jamie is asking for a post a week from those interested. The idea being that if we can get mad SEO cred the right way- by producing compelling content together, we all win. I hope it works and puts more distance between real defense bloggers, and the ghostwritting dreck blawging SEO scamsters.

Will AL be successful? Organizing defense lawyers can be like herding cats and the murky nature of returns on such a setup may prove unworkable in the long run. But I’m proud of Jamie for his innovation.

Mother Jones writes an alarming expose on the abusive police tactics used in PI arrests. As part of their story they quoted an expert on the subject, yours truly. From Mother Jones-

State courts have not only upheld the practice but expanded the definition of public intoxication to cover pretty much any situation, says Robert Guest, a criminal defense attorney in Dallas. “Having no standard allows the police to arrest whoever pisses them off and call it PI,” he says, adding, “If you have a violent, homophobic, or just an asshole of a cop and you give him the arbitrary power to arrest anyone for PI, you can expect violent, homophobic, and asshole-ic behavior.”

I’m going to trademark the word asshole-ic(TM). I’m pretty sure that’s an RG original. Enough about me. Let’s talk about PI.

Nothing is more unjust, however common, than to charge with hypocrisy him that expresses zeal for those virtues which he neglects to practice; since he may be sincerely convinced of the advantages of conquering his passions, without having yet obtained the victory, as a man may be confident of the advantages of a voyage, or a journey, without having courage or industry to undertake it, and may honestly recommend to others, those attempts which he neglects himself

Samuel Johnson

I was in a band in law school and we penned a few original tunes to mix in with our Pat Green/CCR covers. Blogging is a lot like song writing. Some posts and songs require a lot of research, editing, and inspiration. Some just fall in your lap. Today’s post arrived with the force of back to back lap dances from the Biggest Loser crew.

I had a DWI jury trial for most of last week. I don’t blog about trials or cases in detail, and I’m not going to start here. But I would like to talk about the experience of trial stress and what it’s like to represent a defendant in front of a jury of her peers.

I usually start feeling trial anxiety the weekend before. That is when my thought process becomes dominated by visions of voir dire and opening statements.

If my mind isn’t occupied with other matters then mentally I’m in trial. I often visualize the scene, projecting myself into the trial. I can see the jury, the prosecutor, and the courtroom.

Well my trial ended so now I’ve got some time to blog. Here is roundup of sorts I was working on last week.

Want to be on Penn and Teller Bullshit?

I got a call from a producer with Penn and Teller looking for an interview on sexting. I wrote a general post on the laws in Texas but BS is looking for an attorney or defendant who have been involved in a sexting case. Particulary for defendants who have had their lives ruined by overzealous puritanical prosecutors. BS will be in Dallas in February to film. Email me if you are interested.

What is the National Criminal Justice Act? It’s a commission proposed by Jim Webb (D) to evaluate the shortcoming in our criminal justice system. From Senator Webb.

The National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2009 that I introduced in the Senate on March 26, 2009 will create a blue-ribbon commission to look at every aspect of our criminal justice system with an eye toward reshaping the process from top to bottom. I believe that it is time to bring together the best minds in America to confer, report, and make concrete recommendations about how we can reform the process. This legislation has already garnered wide bipartisan support in Congress and from interest groups representing a range of backgrounds and political viewpoints.

Why We Urgently Need this Legislation:

The Sharon Keller findings of fact were issued today. Basically, Judge Keller failed to act as an “exemplary” public servant, failed to foster the open communication we should expect from judges, and even failed to learn anything for her mistakes; but ultimately the blame lies with the defense. Nice.

Judge Keller’s conduct, however, was not exemplary of a public servant. She

should have been more open and helpful about the way in which the TDS could

Sexting is the latest moral panic du jour. In Texas, we have decided that the best way to produce healthy young adults is for the State to criminalize normal consensual teen behavior. Lest our young adults grow up without a healthy fear for the arbitrary and limitless power of law enforcement. Like Lenny and his rabbits sometimes the State can care too much.

How much does Texas love our young adults? Let us count the ways teenagers can be destroyed by the State for sexting.

While you won’t find “sexting” in the penal code, the act of sending nude pics of teens violates a few statutes. The first is possession of child pornography.

Back in my prosecutor days I only ever lost two cases, both were jury trials. One was a speeding ticket (to a prepaid legal attorney no less), the other was a lawnmower theft case.

The lawnmower theft went as follows- CW was inside house and testified she saw D pull up and steal her lawnmower. Pretty simple right? To my utter surprise the jury acquits. Maybe the jury knew something about the inherent unreliability of eyewitness testimony. Grits has more than a few posts on the topic. This latest video (H/T to the Agitator) shows that we aren’t all that aware of what’s going on around us. In fact, as a species we kind of suck at paying attention and recalling events.

Eyewitness mistakes are another spoke on the wrongful conviction wheel (along with snitch testimony, the war on drugs, the erosion of our constitutional protections). Most defendants don’t have the funds to afford an expert in neurology to explain exactly what can go wrong when we try to observe and recall.