In the late afternoon hours of August 1, 2015, Christopher Rion was driving his Dodge Challenger in Dallas, Texas, when he collided with a Toyota Highlander. The collision left the Highlander driver, Claudia Loehr, and a passenger, Claudena Parnell, seriously…
Category: Appeals
2021
Category: Appeals | Criminal Justice Reform | Discovery 39.14 | Prosecutorial Misconduct
Pretrial discovery in criminal cases in Texas is governed by Article 39.14 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure. The Texas Legislature enacted the discovery statute in 1965. The essential purpose of the rule was to enforce the strict duty…
2021
An individual convicted of a criminal offense in Texas has a right to appeal that conviction. It can, however, be a complicated process that must be initiated quickly in order to have any sort of advantage.
An experienced attorney…
2020
When many people think of appeals in criminal cases in Texas, their minds go straight to death row cases – and for good reason. Death row appeals tend to attract media attention, especially they involve the reversal of conviction based…
2020
Category: Appeals | Death Penalty | SCOTUS
Defending a person charged in a serious criminal case, under the best of circumstances, is a difficult task and an extraordinary professional responsibility. Defending a death penalty case under any circumstance is much more arduous and requires years of commitment…
2020
Category: Appeals
The justice system isn’t always perfect. Although endowed with numerous procedural protections and safeguards, trial of criminal cases can, and often do, result in unfair verdicts. Jury biases, police misconduct, and/or prosecutorial misconduct can skew the facts against the defendant…
2019
Category: Appeals | Drug Crime
The Confrontation Clause prominently embedded in the Sixth Amendment to the United States Constitution provides that a criminal defendant has a fundamental right “to be confronted with the witnesses against him.”
Fifteen years ago the U.S. Supreme Court forcefully…
2019
Category: Appeals | Prosecutorial Misconduct
Firing an employee in retaliation for refusing to perform an unlawful act violates both federal (Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964) and Texas (Chapter 21 of the Texas Labor Code) law.
Further, the Texas Supreme Court…
2019
Mental Health America estimates that 5 to 10 percent of the nation’s 2700 death row inmates suffer from some form mental illness.
In August 2006, the American Bar Association through Resolution 122A said that an individual on death row…
2019
Section 1.07(a)(17)(A) of the Texas Penal Code defines a “deadly weapon” as “ … anything manifestly designed, made, or adapted for the purpose of inflicting death or serious bodily injury.” A firearm falls within this definition, regardless of whether the…