Only Results Matter

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Willingham4.jpgTexan 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, the rights of citizens accused, or ethics.

I thought the State’s position on this tragedy, including the kangaroo process of appointing a “forensic science commission” whose leader appears to be a State hack, reminded me of a Brittany Spears song. So without further ado, here it is:

[Sung by the State of Texas to Cameron Todd Willingham, to the tune of “Oops I Did It Again” by Brittany Spears]

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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 CollinCounty.jpginclude 1) the State somehow obtaining a search warrant for a well respected defense lawyer’s offices looking for evidence against his client in a capital case , 2) lawyers being indicted for clerical mistakes in their court filings, and 3) rumors of an investigation of the Repubican frontrunner and current nominee for DIstrict Attorney, who is well known to be squeaky clean. This all came on the heels of postconviction proceedings revealing that a former elected district attorney and elected judge presiding over a death penalty case were doing the naughty with each other during the trial of a capital murder case. Of course, this news is overshadowed by the scandal regarding District Clerk time management skills.

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dumpster.jpgI 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 doo quickly. If the State wanted to hit her as hard as possible, they could ask the grand jury to indict her for attempted capital murder. The grand jury would only have to find probable cause that she intended to kill a child under six years old and attempted to do so.

However, the easiest charge against her would be second degree (two to twenty years TDCJ) abandoning or endangering a child, a violation of 22.041 of the Penal Code:

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48557_the_crooked_e.jpgThe 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 we all blamed Lay and Skilling for its demise. After all, they were in charge when it went from boom to bust, right?

I moved to Houston shortly after Enron fell, and its demise was the talk and tragedy of the town. The media coverage saturated the city and Lay and Skilling were public enemy numbers 1 and 1A. Prior to their criminal trial, their lawyers spent around $1 million on surveys of Houstonians which revealed that Lay and Skilling ranked somewhere below Satan in the minds of most people in the prospective jury pool.

Nonetheless, the lynch mob/jury panel was brought into Federal Court in Houston so they could tell the Federal judge whether or not they could be “fair and impartial” enough to sit on their trial. Even though they thought Lay and Skilling guilty as hell, they could “set aside those feelings” and judge the case on the evidence. As jury consultant Robert Hirschorn said, the judge in that case spent 5 hours rehabilitating the jurors (getting presumptively disqualified jurors to correct their views on the record).

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Cash.jpgI 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 of hard to think of unintended consequences when you only have six months to pass a bill, but five years of failed policy should at least get the item on the agenda this session.

Contrary to popular belief, the huge “surcharge” or DWI-tax-that-we-can’t-call-a-tax-because-then-it’s-unconstitutional, was passed as a way to raise revenue during a legislative session in which Texas once again found itself overbudget. Unfortunately, DWI defendants, who like most criminal defendants are indigent, failed to be the gold mine that our elected officials envisioned.

Of course, heaven forbid we consider making first-time driving while intoxicated an offense in which deferred adjudication probation is an option, to at least it bring it on par with sexual assault, drug delivery, robbery, and other apparently more “deferred worthy” offenses in Texas. Maybe then citizens who plead guilty to DWI would have more of a chance of keeping or getting a good job, whereby they could pay their outrageous surcharge.

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vapd_temp_hdr (2).jpgConcerned 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 definitely have a very aggressive police department, which apparently almost all of the readers of the Herald Democrat prefer, individual rights be damned.

Apparently, at around 2:00 in the morning Mr. Wolfe was working at his place of business when someone set off the alarm. He checked on the disturbance and someone flashed a light in his face blinding him. He was interrogated by an officer who claimed that dispatch had reported a “suspicious person” (Mr. Wolfe did not inform of his race or exact location).

Mr. Wolfe warned that citizens may be forced to use the Castle Law to his benefit, which allows Texas citizens to shoot an intruder into their home if they are in their home and did not provoke the intrusion and were not committing a crime themselves at the time. He states “an attempt to do an illegal search causes constitutional scholars to frown and Texas laws might turn this into a catastrophic event…” and that “[t]his episode is just another example of the many acts of harassment that citizens of Van Alstyne seemingly are expected to endure. How long are we as citizens of this town going to tolerate this type of treatment?” We don’t know, Jim, we just don’t know.

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Axe.jpgThe 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 to drive. As if the arrest, posting bail, shopping for an attorney, fighting the ALR hearing process, getting an occupation license if you are unsuccessful, and going through the Court process wasn’t enough, our legislature added this tax as one last giant hammer to wack those convicted of DWI (the guilty, the innocent, the underrepresented, and those talked into not having a lawyer) over the head with on the way out the door.

The DWI surcharge law, Transportation Code § 708.102, went into effect on September 1, 2003. It states, in relevant part, that

(b) Each year the department shall assess a surcharge on the license of each person who during the preceding 36-month period has been finally convicted of an offense relating to the operating of a motor vehicle while intoxicated.

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Jail.jpgIn 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 way. In people’s heart of hearts a person is guilty until proven innocent once a nasty (although false) allegation is made. Back that false accusation up with an officer with a badge and a gun, and we may have a conviction.

When a true criminal trial lawyer steps in, you can hear the wheels of injustice come to a screeching halt. The powerless citizen trapped in a game of accusation and conviction finally has a voice. The accused has someone trained to reason with jorors inflamed by accusations and arguments. Someone now will stand between him and months or years or a lifetime in a small steel cage at the taxpayer’s expense.

If you are accused of a crime, exercise your right to an attorney. Criminal defense attorneys are the only private profession mentioned in the Constitution of the United States for a reason. You deserve a fair fight, a fair trial, and your true shot at justice. There plenty of lawyers in your community who are proud to try criminal cases on a regular basis, which fight back and regularly win trials for those falsely or improperly accused of a crime. Call around town and ask around town about who is in the courthouse fighting and winning. Do not plead guilty simply because you are scared or don’t have the money to hire an attorney. Ask the court for an attorney if you cannot hire one. When the government comes after you, you can’t make it without one.

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1261217_khmer_rouge_torture_cell.jpgOften 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 that it is morally questionable or ethically borderline to defend honest citizens accused of crime, whether they did it or not.

I do what I do not only because I love it, but because I am needed badly. Criminal defense lawyers and honest jurors and judges are the main obsticles to politically motivated laws and pressures to put you in jail if doing so is beneficial to those wearing the badge or controlling the government (or to run up a $10,000 bill against you for allegedly driving “intoxicated”). Court systems in America designed to “do justice” can easily evolve (or de-volve) into systems to protect those in power and maintain the status quo. There are plenty of ethical prosecutors and police officers out there, and this article isn’t a stab at them, but the political and professional system in which they must serve brings tremendous pressures on them to arrest and convict you.

If you think our criminal justice system as a whole is about “presumption of innocence” and “burden of proof,” you are sadly mistaken. Every week innocent individuals are herded like cattle into our courtrooms across our land like cattle and pressured into pleading guilty (often without a lawyer) to crimes they have no business pleading guilty to. Every week or month it seems that someone is freed from prison on DNA evidence proving their innocence of the crimes they were convicted of or to which they pled guilty.

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prison.jpgHis 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 to you by the state of Texas. A Texas capital jury, after they find a person guilty of capital murder, are given the three special issues that the Supreme Court wants answered.

1) whether there exists a probability the defendant would commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a “continuing threat to society”.

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Contact Information
Texas Board of Legal Especialization
Sherman, Texas
711 N Travis St
Sherman, TX 75090
Phone: (903) 744-4252
(Principal Office)
Plano, Texas
101 E Park Blvd #600/41
Plano, TX 75074
(By appointment)

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