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Category: Criminal Law | Forfeiture
Texas law enforcement can seize, and keep, an individual’s private property—cash, cars, houses, or ranch/farm equipment, for example—when they suspect the property is connected to criminal activity.
According to the Institute for Justice, the federal government and all 50…
Category: Appeals | Criminal Law
Article 37.07 § 3(a) of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure has long been considered one of the guiding principles concerning the admissibility of evidence during the penalty phase in a felony case. This article allows the state to offer…
A defendant seeking to establish that he received ineffective assistance of counsel during a criminal proceeding must demonstrate (1) that his attorney’s performance was so deficient that it fell below “an objective standard of reasonableness” and (2) that “a reasonable…
Category: Constitutional Law | Criminal Law
In a 1976 Valparaiso Law Review article, “Historical Developments of the Interrelationship of Unanimous Verdicts and Reasonable Doubt,” Anthony A. Morano noted that in pre-colonial America, English law “required that jurors be kept together incommunicado during deliberations, without food, drink,…
Category: Appeals | Corruption | Criminal Law
Open meetings laws are often referred to as “sunshine laws.” These laws require that meetings, decisions and records, with some exceptions, of state and federal agencies and regulatory bodies be open and readily available to the public.
The public…
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Criminal Law | Immigration Crimes
Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign in 2015 with a direct, blatant racist appeal. A 2018 study by the Proceedings of the Academy of Sciences found it was that fascist oriented ideological appeal that drove many white voters to the…
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Criminal Law
The recent, and longest, government shutdown has focused public attention on claims by President Donald Trump and his Wall proponents that crime is not only a major problem but is actually out of control along the U.S.-Mexico border.
Both…
Category: Criminal Law | Drug Crime
The First Step Act (“Act”) is expected to produce badly needed reform of the federal mandatory minimum sentencing scheme. The reform legislation offers promise to improve rehabilitation programs and living conditions in the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
More importantly,…
Category: Appeals | Criminal Law
In October 2013 Terri Regina Lang was shopping at an HEB store in Burnet County, Texas. She was observed by a store employee taking unpaid-for-items and placing them in a reusable shopping bag tied to her cart. When Lang went…
Category: Criminal Law | Federal Criminal Law
It has been reported in multiple news sources and case law that roughly 97 percent of all federal criminal defendants plead guilty. The overwhelming majority of these pleas are the product of an agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Like…
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