…and you were the defense lawyer, wouldn’t you want to know?
(If this were being litigated in Texas, I’d bet on a harnless error result.)
Jury Trials
Jury Blogs
By Jamie Spencer on
Posted in Jury Trials
No, I didn’t make my own list of Jury Blogs, I’m just cutting and pasting from Deliberations:
- The Science of Small Talk, Prof. Sam Sommers writing for Psychology Today. It’s not always directly about juries (although the current series is), but juries are a large part of his scholarly focus, so
…
The Criminal Defense Lawyer’s Dream Juror
By Jamie Spencer on
Posted in Jury Trials
Anne Reed of Deliberations writes about the Fully Informed Jury Association and their core belief that:
The highest and best function of the jury is not, as many think, to dispense punishment to fellow citizens guilty of breaking the law, but rather to protect fellow citizens from tyrannical prosecutions and bad laws imposed by a…
Jury Duty: Washed Out
By Jamie Spencer on
Posted in Jury Trials
OK, for those of you that noticed that I just posted while serving on a jury, let me defend myself. I wasn’t picked; in fact, there was no trial at all. We all sat around for about 45 minutes until the bailiff came in to let us know that all the cases had “worked out” and…
Jury Duty Tomorrow
By Jamie Spencer on
Posted in Jury Trials
So I was excited when I get the jury summons in the mail, and almost immediately went to my computer to fill out the new I-Jury online impaneling that Travis County now uses. Right before I clicked the last item to send my information out into the ether that is the internet I chanted, silently, “No…
He’s the Guy Sitting Next To the Defense Attorney
By Jamie Spencer on
Posted in DWI, Jury Trials
At some point in any trial the prosecutor is going to ask a witness to identify the defendant as the person who is accused in the complaint or indictment. A fair amount of the time this witness doesn’t know the defendant personally – may never have met him – especially if it’s a police officer making…
“We’re Going to Teach You To Think Like a Lawyer”
By Jamie Spencer on
Posted in Jury Trials
…said every professor in every first year class on the first day of law school. (It’s been a while, but somehow that’s how I remember the entire first week of UT Law.)
That and a heavy dose of the Socratic Method may or may not be the best way to teach students how to be lawyers…
The Mind and Criminal Defense
By Jamie Spencer on
Posted in Jury Trials
I see that my buddy and noted Texas defense lawyer Mark Bennett is speaking at Center for American and International Law CLE called “The Mind and Criminal Defense”. It’s a one day course on Capital Mitigation and it sure looks interesting, but unfortunately it conflicts with my schedule.
Other defense lawyers – especially those…
Intoxication is Not a Defense
By Jamie Spencer on
Posted in Jury Trials
But it might get you out of jury duty.
(Or should I have made this post something about having “a jury of your peers”?)
Good Law?
By Jamie Spencer on
Posted in Jury Trials, Search and Seizure
Doug Weathers asks criminal defense lawyers, “Would you rather have Good Facts or Good Law?”:
Every time I am preparing for a trial I deal with the question of do I have good facts or good law. Rarely do you have both because those cases are usually dismissed or never go to trial.
…