Also known as “Your Tax Dollars at Work”, Austin, Texas’ own KEYE news reports on the latest and greatest of Sting Operations out of Dallas:
Since January, arrests in sting operations featuring female officers posing as prostitutes are up 300 percent citywide. In the first nine months of 2005, there were about 141 arrests
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…at least, they shouldn’t be.
I’m always amused when I see the back and forth on “Law & Order” between the prosecutors and the defense attorneys. It mostly consists of the types of interactions that give lawyers a bad name: threats, insults, and general nastiness are (in TV Land) the norm.
In reality, or at least…
I expect there will be some buzz about Scalia’s comment in oral argument today that:
"No one thinks your client is abstaining from tequila for fear of being deported," he said. Supervision "is impossible once he leaves the country," he added. "This is an ingenious exercise of the conceivable." (See page 16, line 15 of the
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The Supreme Court refused to hear eight different criminal procedure cases today, leaving us with only two for this term. The cases shot down covered topics (among others) from funding indigent defense expert witnesses, invoking your right to counsel, actual innocence exceptions to procedural requirements, Brady v. Maryland issues and one I was really looking forward…
The first Monday in October brings us a Linda Greenhouse piece in the New York Times today predicting that the cases the United States Supreme Court chose to decide this term will tell us more about the composition and beliefs of the new court more than last year’s decisions did:
During the first term under
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California post conviction blog Criminal Appeal reports on an unreasonable condition of probation being stricken from a drug offender’s conditions of probation.
A California Court of Appeal has stricken the pet-portion of a probation condition requiring a defendant convicted of possession of methamphetamine to “[k]eep the probation officer informed of place of residence, cohabitants and
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Hat Tip to Andrew Bluestone of New York Attorney Malpractice blog for finding this juror’s post after a case. I always find that listening to jurors’ views after a case is extremely important. You can always improve what you did at trial. The same is true for cases you weren’t involved in. Points from the juror:
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Austin Criminal Defense Lawyers Association elected new board members for the year recently. The three new full board members elected were: Gus Garcia, Virginia Greenway and Katie Salzer. The three associate board members elected were: Oscar Buitron, Charlie Grant and Keith Lauerman. Congratulations go out to all these local Austin defense attorneys. I know they will do well for…
The New York Times today ran a story today called Broken Bench. Look no further than this article to find what a “justice system” without proper safeguards can bring. The list of legal horrors includes (but, as they say "is not limited to"): defendants being denied their right to counsel, the equivalent of debtor’s prisons…
§ 12.22. CLASS B MISDEMEANOR.
An individual adjudged guilty of a Class B misdemeanor shall be punished by:
(1) a fine not to exceed $2,000;
(2) confinement in jail for a term not to exceed 180 days; or
(3) both such fine and confinement.