Not to be outdone by the wisdom of the Oklahoma Legislature, our braniacs in Austin last year enacted “aggravated” driving while intoxicated provisions similar to the Sooner state, whereby a first time offender now faces a year in jail if the person 1) commits the offense of driving while intoxicated,…
Mr. Hurd will have a tougher time in his detention hearing and his case because, by his own statements reported to the media, he is the man in charge of his conspiracy. The primo hombre, so to speak. The Federal sentencing scheme punishes this as a “leadership role,” which normally…
Wide receiver Sam Hurd, a well-liked player whose hard work earned him a roster spot on the Dallas Cowboys a few years ago, and eventually landed him a $5.1 million contract with the Chicago Bears, decided to risk it all by investing his money not in the fickle stock market…
In 1991, thirteen years after his original conviction and death sentence, the Supreme Court reversed his conviction due to illegal psychiatric testimony. Although a blatant violation of the right to remain silent and the right to counsel, the prosecution arranged for Mr. Cook to be interviewed by a State psychiatrist…
The case of State of Texas v. Kerry Max Cook, the twenty year series of trials and appeals in which the State of Texas through the Smith County District Attorney’s Office (Tyler, TX), continually lied, knowingly presented perjured evidence, and did everything evil that rogue prosecutors are able to do,…
The convict-at-all-costs mentality that surrounds these cases is why many defense lawyers will tell you that aggravated sexual assault of a child trials have become the Salem Witch trials of modern times. One on trial in Texas for aggravated sexual assault of a child might as well be on trial…
Last session, the Texas Legislature enacted Texas’s version “Jessica’s Law,” which increased the penalties for the crimes of aggravated sexual assault of a child under 6 and continuous sexual assault of a child. While most of us agree that a legitimate charge of such an offense should warrant a harsh…
How do you or a loved one end up in the Eastern District of Texas, particularly the Sherman division, sitting in the Fannin County Jail in Bonham, Texas on a drug conspiracy charge? Well, the Sherman Division (with courthouses in Sherman and Plano, Texas) is a choice forum for the…
Federal prosecutors use the power of “conspiracy” prosecutions to obtain convictions all over the United States without the burden of proving that an individual committed the actual, substantive crime. Many people finding themselves charged in kilogram or multi-kilogram conspiracies although they may have simply been innocent or a user (innocent…
“Is your commitment to life as deep as your commitment to the truth?” This is the question I was forced to ask myself this past week as I worked through an exercise at the 2011 Death Penalty Seminar at Gerry Spence’s Trial Lawyers College. Truth and life seem to be…