Texan Cameron Todd Willingham was tried, convicted of killing his children and sentenced to death based on bogus arson junk science and a jailhouse snitch in 1992. The tragic death of Willingham’s children was made more tragic by the unnecessary killing of their father will little regard for due process,…
A reported sixth grand jury empanelled on the matter in Collin County finally rubber-stamped a criminal prosecution of elected 380th District Judge Suzanne Wooten, who had the gall to run against and beat incumbent judge Charles Sandoval in 2008. Previous recent crazy goings on in Collin County include include 1)…
I have been at a conference and hadn’t had time to chime in on Sherman Dumpster Baby Lady. After leaving her newborn in a dumpster behind a restaurant, she finds herself in quite a legal pickle. Abandoning a child or conduct endangering a child can get you in serious doo…
The Supreme Court finally chimed in this summer on the appropriateness of having the criminal trial of Enron badboys Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling in Houston, Texas, where most of the population had been effected by the collapse of the corporate giant. We all knew what happened to Enron, and…
I read a good article in the Dallas Morning News earlier this year about the DWI surcharge, and whether the Texas legislature would have the brains to end this failed program. Unintended consequences should always be thoroughly considered before levying a huge “surcharge” on driver’s licenses. I guess it’s kind…
Concerned citizen Jim Wolfe wrote a tart letter to the editor of the Sherman Herald Democrat that he is “Fed up with Van Alstyne police”. I found the letter amusing as the most complaints of any small-town department that I know if in north Texas come from Van Alstyne. They…
The great “hidden fee” of DWI convictions, which neither the prosecutor nor the judge will tell you when one of them tries to talk you into pleading guilty without a lawyer, is the $1,000 to $2,000 a year “surcharge” tax you will pay for three years to keep your right…
In the middle of this sea of injustice is the lonely, scared, powerless citizen branded “defendant” by the system. The citizen has been accused of a crime he hasn’t committed and knows nothing about crime or law or justice or defending himself. In our society, an accusation goes a long…
Often I get asked how I can defend people accused of heinous crimes, or even small crimes. How can you defend criminals? How can you defend the guilty (as if everyone trapped in our justice system is guilty)? Normally this question comes from somebody looking down their nose and implying…
His first performance of self-mutilation not being enough, Sherman, Texas death row inmate Andre Thomas pulled out his last remaining eye and ate it. They say he said it tasted like fish. This raised an interesting and academic question of the propriety of his future death, scheduled to be brought…