In current reelection campaign ads, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tries to bolster his artificial “law-and-order” bona fides with assertions that he stopped dangerous criminal predators from being released from jail through a “cashless” bail system. The campaign ad is vintage…
Category: Criminal Law
2022
Category: Constitutional Law | Criminal Law | Federal Criminal Law
The Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides five distinct procedural safeguards for those accused of a crime and to secure life, liberty, and property. Those safeguards are:
right to grand jury indictment for capital or infamous crime;
double jeopardy,…
2022
Category: Constitutional Law | Criminal Law
The August 8, 2022 search and seizure at former President Donald J. Trump’s Mar-A-Lago private club/residence by the FBI has put the issues of search warrants, subpoenas, and probable cause at the forefront of political debate and social discourse across…
2022
Bigamy and polygamy are illegal in all 50 states. It is irrelevant to the criminal law that all the spouses in a polygamous marriage are aware of the other spouses and choose to voluntarily engage in such a marriage for…
2022
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Criminal Law | Due Process | Jury Selection
Texan and former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Tom C. Clark once said, “The jury system improves the quality of justice and is the sole means of keeping its administration attuned to community standards.”
The Constitution of the United States and…
2022
Category: bail reform | Criminal Justice Reform | Criminal Law
The COVID 19 pandemic (“pandemic”) taught the American criminal justice system one thing: the nation’s cash bail system is a for-profit practice that has nothing to do with public safety. …
2022
Category: Appeals | Criminal Law | Federal Criminal Law | SCOTUS
The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees a criminal defendant the right to effective assistance of counsel at both the trial and appellate level. A defendant raising an ineffective assistance claim in a post-conviction proceeding must meet a two-prong…
2022
Category: Criminal Law | Death Penalty
On February 17, 2007, paramedics in Harlingen, Texas, responded to a call at an apartment shared by Melissa Lucio and her husband, Robert Alvarez. The EMTs found the couple’s two-year-old daughter, Mariah, unresponsive and, according to police reports, covered with…
2021
Category: Appeals | Criminal Law | Homicide/Murder
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…
2021
Category: Criminal Law | Federal Criminal Law
It is interesting to note that most federal cases never proceed to trial in a courtroom. That’s because roughly 90 percent of federal criminal cases are resolved with a plea bargain.
Federal prosecutors like to find resolution via plea…