…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
Grant Griffiths’ post about pending legislation upping the Driver’s License Suspensions in Kansas for DUI got me thinking:
Under the proposal, a first-time DUI offender would receive twice the standard license suspension if his BAC was .16 or greater. Three offenses at the higher level would result in permanent revocation of driving privileges.
Here in
In its never-ending disinformation campaign, the DEA has set up a website called StumbleWeed, a fake magazine to “teach” children the “truth” about marijuana. In the section titled Rx Pot: Prescription for Disaster, they claim to cut through the hype about medical marijuana, and get to the facts:
Even though some groups have endorsed
News8 Austin had a recent segment on how the increasing number of DWI arrests in Austin has caused the current County Court judges to ask for another court:
Each month Travis County court-at-law judges handle thousands of criminal cases. Judges say their average monthly caseload has increased 60 percent since 2002… Each county court currently
§ 481.121. OFFENSE: POSSESSION OF MARIHUANA. (MARIJUANA)
(a) Except as authorized by this chapter, a person commits an offense if the person knowingly or intentionally possesses a usable quantity of marihuana.
(b) An offense under Subsection (a) is:
(1) a Class B misdemeanor if the amount of marihuana possessed is two ounces or less;
(2) a Class A
Austin Police Department’s DWI Enforcement Unit (Task Force) was created in 1998. Since then, DWI arrests in Austin, Texas have more than doubled.
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
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
§ 12.35. STATE JAIL FELONY PUNISHMENT.
(a) Except as provided by Subsection (c), an individual adjudged guilty of a state jail felony shall be punished by confinement in a state jail for any term of not more than two years or less than 180 days.
(b) In addition to confinement, an individual adjudged guilty of a