Criminal Appeals

March 30, 2012

Dallas Court of Appeals Overturns Prohibited Weapon Conviction

Today’s case of the day is Michael Scott Page vs. The State of Texas. It’s a Kaufman County weapons case that was appealed to the 5th Circuit in Dallas.

What happened?

Michael was out on bond (agg assault). While on bond Michael told his neighbor he we was going to blow up the courthouse. Michael’s neighbor called the police and relayed the details of this conversation. Michael’s bond was then declared insufficient (a topic for another post) and an arrest warrant was issued.

March 27, 2012

Dallas Appeals Court Reverses Retaliation Conviction

by Robert Guest

Today’s Dallas Court of Appeals case of the day is- Lowell Merritt vs. The State of Texas!

What happened? From the opinion.

The events leading up to appellant’s indictment on a felony retaliation charge began in July 2007 when appellant’s neighbor reported that appellant “cussed” his wife. After reviewing the report, a Collin County sheriff’s deputy filed a disorderly conduct complaint against appellant in the Precinct 2 Justice of the Peace Court of Terry Douglas.

April 26, 2011

Lessons from the Milgram experiment; or why cops want to tase your groin

by Robert Guest

I recently watched the Christohper Hicthens/Tony Blair debate on whether religion is a force for good in the world. To paraphrase Mr. Hitchens; “You can expect good people do good things, and bad people do bad things. To get a good person to do a bad thing you need religion.” The idea being that one can bypass ordinary human decency and morality by stating that an act is divinely warranted.

The parallels with statism, positive law, and the War on Drugs, are evident to a front line observer of the Texas criminal justice system. The state may not claim divine authority, but it does share religion’s ability to get good people to do horrible things.

Which brings me to our appellate case of the day- Hereford vs. State.

September 15, 2010

Kaufman Bar Meeting Notes

by Robert Guest

As Kaufman County Bar President I’ve been working to start a bar philanthropy project. I’m a little worried about my ability to motivate my colleagues. Everyone is really busy, we don’t have a lot of time, the economy sucks etc. I don’t even have a Vice President to boss around (that was me, but since my promotion the position has been open).

Juvenile Defendant Literacy Project

To that end today I asked the bar to support a literacy project for juvenile probationers. I take no credit for this idea. It’s the brainchild of Juvie Probation Director Laura Peace. This is her baby and the Kaufman Bar needs to come through.

October 20, 2009

The Right To Skype The Witnesses Against You?- Dallas Court of Appeals Case of the Day

by Robert Guest

“In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right… to be confronted with the witnesses against him”

6th Amendment- US Constitution

You know what I don’t use. A web cam. I’ve never installed one at my office or home. My macbook has one built in but it’s always off. I’m not sure I want the entire internet staring at me while I type in my pajamas.

October 7, 2009

CCA continues assault on right to counsel- Hughen vs. State

by Robert Guest

Remember the right to counsel? In simpler times if you were in custody and asked for an attorney, the police had to wait for counsel to arrive before beggining their good cop/bad cop routine. Such antiquated rights like the 6th Amendment and Article 1 Section of the Texas Constitution are are being replaced with exciting new rights; like the right to be executed for an arson you didn’t commit based on junk science.

Today’s Court of Criminal Appeals Case of the day is…. Hughen v. State-

Facts– Hughen was arrested and charged with agg assault and attempted murder. Hughen was taken before a magistrate. During this time Hughen asked for a lawyer.

June 30, 2009

Tuesday Thoughts

by Robert Guest

I’ve discovered there is an inverse relationship between blogging and legal work. I’m grateful to be busy in this economy, but it’s giving me blog fail. What I do have time for is another roundup!!

On Sotomayor-

First, I’ll admit I have not done an exhaustive study of her opinions. I’m only familiar with the cases that have been highlighted by the media/blogosphere. My scant review of her track record indicates she is less of a liberal than a knee jerk statist. She seems to consistently side with the government over the individual. Whether it’s cops (even really bad cops), eminent domain, affirmative actions programs, et al, the winner is the state.

June 9, 2009

Dallas Court of Appeals Case of the Day- The Empire Strikes Black

by Robert Guest

Jury selection is art and science, part Dr. Phil, part Dr. Freud with some law thrown in for good measure. It’s an area law schools provide no practical instruction for, yet no lawyer can try a case without knowing how to select a jury.

What law students are taught is Batson vs. Kentucky. Batson purported to end the practice of striking jurors based on race or ethnicity. This rule was later swallowed by the exception, but for a shining moment, the right to serve on a jury regardless of your race was protected by the Batson challenge.

What is a Batson challenge?

May 2, 2009

Better late than Keller

by Robert Guest

Anyone who reads this blawg regulalry knows that I enjoy taking a current news story and adding some information on the law for the lay public, or some opinion not in the original piece (e.g. pot should be legal, the 4th Amendment matters).

News reaction is not the pinnacle of blawging. Grits, Simple Justice, and Defending People regularly pen original work on broader topics, or create news themselves. That’s blawg gold. Recognizing the limitation of the form let’s move on to the continuing saga of Judge Keller.

Today’s DMN piece on Judge Sharon Keller’s financial statement debacle leaves little for me to add. Instead, I’ll just cut and paste a few sections. This is like mainlining irony.

April 21, 2009

SCOTUS case of the day- Arizona v. Gant

by Robert Guest

I knew in law school that I was going to be a criminal defense lawyer. My criminal law class was a painful study in how our constitutional rights were sacrificed to help save dope cases. Decades of weakening the 4th and 5th amendment (to the point of absurdity) all in the name of WOD. I wish I had my notes for that class, I remember writing “court oks search because cops find drugs, create new exception” etc.

One such tragedy was the line of “automobile” exceptions. Basically, driving a car meant you gave up your privacy rights so cops could search for drugs.

That is why today’s case, Arizona v. Gant is significant. SCOTUS overturns (or “declines to interpret broadly”) bad precedent and actually limits police searches.