Austin Criminal Defense Lawyer : Austin Criminal Defense Lawyer & Attorney : Jamie Spencer Law Firm : DWI, DUI, Drug Possession : Serving Georgetown, Round Rock, San Marcos, Travis, Williamson, and Hays County, Texas

Criminal lawyer Thomas Gallagher writes about a case, Minnesota v. Peck, decided by his state’s Supreme Court which overruled a trial court’s determination that including the bong water as a “mixture” used to calculate the weight of methamphetamine possessed by a defendant would be “unjust”.

The difference in the weight of the meth alone vs. the weight including the bong water (approximately 37 grams) raised the offense to a first degree drug felony punishable by a maximum of 30 years, and if I have my Minnesota law right, and I very well might not, a minimum sentence of 87 months, or 7 years and 3 months. Assume the defendant would be probation eligible otherwise, and you Yankee lawyers can write in to tell me I’m wrong.

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I predicted some humorous tidbits would come from D.A. Confidential, and I’ll predict now that this post may be hard for DAC to top. I’m going to forgo substantive comments, merely hinting at the subject matter, hopefully forcing you to click through and actually read the original. (You know how new bloggers get obsessed with watching their stats.)

A total guess here on my part: the defense lawyer simply handed this motion to the prosecutor in court as a joke – it’s not file stamped after all. The response is brilliant.

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“You don’t get a figure like mine by eating salads for lunch,” I often say, when it is either necessary or, more likely, merely personally amusing to point out that I’m no longer the fittest of the fit. But I still have a few friends left from childhood that remember me as a scrawny kid, constantly on the move, never staying still, always running, bicycling, shooting hoops, not per se “exercising” in the 40-something meaning of the word, on treadmills or ellipticals, but let’s say… “very active”. (And I wonder where my children get their energy from.)

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The Department of Justice sent a memo on Monday to all its prosecutors regarding federal prosecution of marijuana cases in States that have legalized the use of medical marijuana. From the memo:

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A new criminal law blog in Austin has popped up recently, but unlike those I recently posted about, this one comes in the black hat variety. That’s right: it’s written by a prosecutor.

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Press the DirecTV and the TV Power button simultaneously, for approximately 5 seconds, or until the red light at the top blinks. Type in code 0-1-2-8. Tada!

Note to others: this may not work for you. This code works on my exact TV, with my exact box, and my exact remote. The reason I have put this on my blog is that every time I have to reprogram the damn thing – say, for example, I change the batteries – I go to the computer to look up the code.

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Reading between the lines from this KXAN news story, “Man Faces Life In Prison for Perjury”:

A Liberty Hill man faces life in prison for aggravated perjury charges after claiming he was innocent following a plea bargain with the Williamson County District Attorney’s Office.

Prosecutors say Markus Peavy had made false statements in his plea bargain and the writ when claiming he was not guilty of DWI charges. Peavy is two years into a 55-year sentence for a fourth DWI conviction.

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This blog turns three years old today. Actually, I think the first live post may have been “Logical Fallacies and Marijuana Decriminalization” posted on September 21, 2006, and there were several articles written prior to putting the blog online, but I forgot to comment on the anniversary last week, so I’m arbitrarily moving it to October 1st. (I also reserve the right to re-forget and bump the birthday to the middle of October next year.)

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