It’s been a while since my last post – sometimes life throws things at you faster than you can blog about them. Here’s what I’ve been up to in the last month: 1) Won my first motion to suppress in a DWI case. As with most DWI cases where your client looks really intoxicated on [...]
September 16, 2009
What Makes this Job Fun
Considering that my business involves dealing with some of the worst things people can do to each another on a daily basis, one might think that the practice of criminal law is not fun. Oh, to the contrary. Trying getting stories like these out of people who work in normal offices. Yesterday morning I headed [...]
August 18, 2009
Supreme Court Justice Doesn’t Think Innocence Matters?
Being a former staff attorney and current board member for an innocence project, I generally do not blog on innocence-related matters (some would say I’m a little too close to the issue and they would be absolutely right). That being said, I’m going to break with my usual policy. I read something so appalling from [...]
July 24, 2009
DWI License Suspension – A Small Victory
For the poor, unfortunate soul arrested for DWI in Texas, many people are surprised to learn that an arrest for DWI triggers not just one, but two cases. The first is the criminal case, in which the State must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you loss the normal use of your mental or physical [...]
July 21, 2009
The Right to Cross Examine
In an interesting bit posted by the Washington Post, a Virgina judge threw out a breathalyzer certificate because prosecutors failed to make the person who performed the breath test available for cross-examination. The Virginia court relied primarily on the Supreme Court’s most recent confrontation clause decision in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, which I gleefully posted on [...]
July 7, 2009
Best “Boston Legal” Quote Ever:
Alan Shore: “My problem is the judge. His tiny brain has been calcified by intolerance.”
July 7, 2009
Reading Case Law Depresses Me
So, being a younger attorney and not having the bulk of criminal case law memorized like my awesome mentoring attorneys, I frequently find that I have to go look things up. As I’m quickly learning, reading the law can be a rather depressing experience. Today’s to-do involved researching whether or not statements made to law [...]
July 2, 2009
Harmful Error on Harmless Error!
In a state where some appellate courts go out of their way to find trial errors harmless, the Amarillo appellate court deserves a nod for their recent opinion in Mason v. State. The case involved the Potter County District Attorney allowing law enforcement to question witnesses in front of the grand jury, a clear violation [...]
June 25, 2009
My Legal Hero Wins Another One
Congratulations are in order (again!) for attorney Jeff Fisher, who won yet another case in the Supreme Court of the United States. The high court handed down its opinion today in Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, ruling that lab reports are testimonial under the Confrontation Clause. Despite the fact that the decision was pretty clear under the [...]
June 23, 2009
What a Relief
So, some days slogging through all of the little tasks on cases can be a bit mind-numbing. At times like those, I try and remind myself of the bigger picture and the payoff that comes from noticing details. You know, hum something patriotric and picture the Constitution in my head. Or take a mental break [...]
- Austin DWI – Refusing a Breath Test
- The Right to Cross Examine
- Results for the July 2008 Texas Bar Exam Posted
- DWI License Suspension – A Small Victory
- Supreme Court Justice Doesn’t Think Innocence Matters?
- Harmless Error returns
- What Makes this Job Fun
- Supreme Court Justice Doesn’t Think Innocence Matters?
- DWI License Suspension – A Small Victory
- The Right to Cross Examine
-
Philip T. Waters: Wow. I hadn't seen that quote. That is crazy...
-
-
-
-
Marjorie Bachman: If the blood is taken pursuant to a warrant, then ...
Subscribe
Subscribe to our e-mail newsletter to receive updates.
October 26, 2009
0 Comments