In December 2014, a Houston man named Andrew Lee Williams struck and killed a 49-year-old mother and grandmother with his vehicle as she jogging along a street in Angelton, Brazoria County. He was convicted of vehicular manslaughter in May 2016…
Author: John Floyd
2019
Category: Murder | Prosecutorial Misconduct
There was little doubt that Anthony Rashad George participated in the November 2016 robbery of 46-year-old Brian Sample in a North Dallas, Texas luxury hotel. A second person, Rodney Range, was also charged with capital murder for participating in that…
2019
Most Americans are very familiar with the college admissions scandal revealed earlier this year involving parents who paid to get their children enrolled in colleges under either false or misleading representations.
These parents made some poor choices—some of whom…
2019
Category: Death Penalty
The Death Penalty Information Center reports that since 1973, 166 people who had been wrongly convicted in American courtrooms and sentenced to death have been exonerated.
The Texas Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty informs that of the 565…
2019
Category: Prosecutorial Misconduct
Unscrupulous prosecutors engage in misconduct in criminal proceedings because they know that they will, in all likelihood, get away with it—and if by happenstance their misconduct should be exposed, there are little threat that will be held professionally accountable for…
2019
Category: Prosecutorial Misconduct
In 1935, roughly 85 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court in Berger v. United States made this oft-quoted observation about a prosecutor’s duty to conduct themselves in a fair, impartial, and most importantly an ethical manner in a criminal trial:…
2019
Category: Uncategorized
Many legal scholars believe that closing arguments are rightly considered the most important phase in a criminal trial. It is the last opportunity defense counsel will have to tip the scale in their favor. Defense attorneys approach closing in different…
2019
Category: Child Abuse | Sex Crimes Against Children
Two child sexual assault (CSA) cases in Texas offer a glimpse into the varied kinds of cases in which juries must determine guilt or innocence and, most often, punishment as well. The different results reached in each case reflect the…
2019
Category: Drug Crime | Drug Trafficking
Owners of a renowned Dallas-based “headshop” (a retail outlet specializing in paraphernalia for the consumption of cannabis and/or tobacco), the Gas Pipe, were recently acquitted of drug trafficking charges after being accused of directly contributing to what was dubbed…
2019
Voir dire—French for “to speak the truth”—is the first opportunity a defense attorney has to interact with the jury directly in a criminal case. The second and final opportunity will be their closing argument. Everything else between the two are…