Have you have been on a Texas criminal jury? I would like to hear from you. Please answer the following questions. Email the results to Robert(AT)RobertGuest(DOT)com. I will post your answers on IWTS.
1. What was the offense?
2. What was the verdict?
I had a family member serve on a felony DWI jury. The charge was DWI with a minor in the car. Two days of trial and a guilty verdict.
I wanted to know what mattered to the jury and how the juror saw the tests. Here are some observations from my relative (who shall remain nameless).
1. The jurors had trouble understanding the HGN test. However, they did assume that the HGN was valid. The idea being that the police would only use a test that was valid. Too bad the science behind HGN has never been peer reviewed or subject to double blind studies. Also, the HGN has a failure rate as high as 38%.
The Texas Tech Football season begins Monday at 4:00PM. Tech takes on the SMU Mustangs here in Dallas.
I live near Dallas, but I’m watching the game at home. If I know you, you are invited. Mark Bennett, Shawn Matlock, and Grits for Breakfast are also invited. RSVP via email.
For some reason Tech does really bad when I actually attend the game. The last Tech game I attended was last year against Colorado. I was in Boulder to witness a 30-6 nightmare loss to the then winless Buffaloes. I’ve also witnessed a 56-3 disaster against Nebraska, as well as two wins (SMU and Baylor respectively).
It’s hard to get very far in a debate over immigration reform without prompting the claim “but they broke the law” — the implication being that, hey, it’s not the Mexicanness we object to, it’s the violation of our infallible, divinely inspired, uniformly just immigration law.
– Kerry Howley, Reason Magazine
The quote is from blog post about how prisoners are being used in Colorado and Arizona to pick crops since the feds are clamping down on illegal immigrants.
Immigration hypocrisy is laid bare. Illegals aliens can’t pick crops because “they broke the law” but inmates are just fine.
An Arlington, Texas municipal employee is in trouble for allegedly requesting $400 to make tickets “go away“. Nereida Hermosillo was charged with misuse of official information, a 3rd degree felony.
When the Government takes your money to make tickets “go away” it is called deferred adjudication. When a private citizen does it, it is a felony.
Labels: Traffic Tickets
TDCAA has a thread on the new DWI fatality statistics. Williamson County DA Jon Bradley hopes these fatality numbers will convince the legislature to mandate blood/breath samples upon arrest.
Implied consent laws are repugnant to the 4th Amendment. The idea is that you give your consent to a breath/blood sample by driving. We would not tolerate implied consent to search our cars or our homes. It is the fear based rhetoric of DWI enforcement that gave us implied consent.
In Texas refusing to give a blood/breath sample only affects your driver’s license. In other states, like California, it is a sentencing enhancement that mandates more jail time if you are found guilty.
I don’t enjoy blogging about “alcohol related fatalities.” Every fatality is tragic, and there are real people behind the numbers. However, I don’t believe in using fear to destroy the Constitution and that is what these numbers represent.
Here are NHTSA’s numbers for 2006. An alleged .08% drop in alcohol related fatalities.
How do you know those numbers are an illusion? Here is how NHTSA calculates those numbers. NHTSA invented a formula to provide “missing” BAC data. The NHTSA explanation of this formula is 28 pages long. My last statistics class was 9 years ago so I can’t make heads or tails out of it.
The Dallas Sheriff has a mobile DWI command post. The Dallas Morning News is concerned that this DWI-mobile is not being used enough.
It seems that the DWI-mobile has been accused or racial profiling. The number of Hispanics arrested by the command center exceeds their demographic representation. This may have something to do with the fact that the DWI-Mobile was placed outside of bars that cater to Hispanics.
A former MADD director doesn’t want silly racial profiling concerns to stop the glorious work of arresting drivers who drink.
It would not be Labor Day without some MADD fear mongering. MADD is unveiling their latest holiday crackdown on social drinking. IWTS took the opportunity to break down the latest MADD press release.
From MADD…
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) have launched a tough Labor Day law enforcement crackdown on drunk driving.
It is amazing how many times I hear that line from clients. They are pulled over. They admit to drinking 1-2 drinks. They perform field sobriety tests and then refuse the breath test. They are arrested and charged with DWI.
I mentioned earlier that DWI is an opinion crime. We give officers huge amounts of discretion to arrest based on their subjective opinion that you are intoxicated.
Intoxicated is the standard, not drunk. We call it Drunk Driving but that is just some good MADD marketing. DWI requires only intoxication.
Dallas Criminal Defense Lawyer Blog