Perhaps over the past four years you have inadvertently learned more about the law than you realize. Who would have thought you’d ponder whether a president could pardon himself or understand the protections provided to the highest office in the…
Category: Criminal Law
2020
Category: Criminal Law | Probation
Criminal justice in Texas includes community supervision—a form of criminal sentencing frequently employed when mitigating factors exist.
Community supervision is more commonly referred to as probation. The essence of this sort of sentencing is that an offender will serve…
2020
Category: Criminal Law | Due Process
Many rights are enshrined in the United States Constitution that Americans hold dear. One is the time-honored right to due process under the law..
Why this particular right?
Because it’s a right that can easily be taken by…
2020
Category: Criminal Law | Venue Transfers
Judges play an important role in every court case. With the eyes of the nation focused on Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination, the role of judges at every level has garnered significant public debate.
Critics do not support Amy Coney…
2020
Category: Criminal Law
While many people have watched their fair share of network courtroom dramas, real life courtroom drama has a whole new meaning and perspective. The use of evidence in a real courtroom is much different than evidence in a television drama.…
2020
Category: Criminal Law | Plea Deals
Plea deals are a fixture in the U.S. criminal justice system. In fact, many people with no direct connection to the criminal justice system know what plea bargaining is, thanks to popular television crime dramas. The reality of plea deals,…
2020
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Criminal Law
Judges are human beings like the rest of us. They make smart decisions, and they make decisions that bear little resemblance to logic.
The Louisiana Supreme Court has a tendency—a long history, actually—of making decisions that fall into the latter…
2020
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Criminal Law | Police Misconduct | Prosecutorial Misconduct
Top officials of the Trump administration, including U.S. Attorney General William Barr, claim there is no “systemic racism” in law enforcement in this country. Yet the conservative Republican group, the Lincoln Project, recently called Trump the “second president” of the…
2020
Category: Criminal Law
Detectives and other law enforcement personnel have a broad range of evidence gathering methods used when investigating a crime.
The problem is that not all of these methods are reliable. You’ve probably heard of evidence being thrown out that…
2020
Category: Coronavirus / COVID-19 | Criminal Law
Law enforcement agencies and state officials around the country are doing their best to maintain order during this unprecedented time. In the state of Texas, this included the declaration of a disaster.
One man in the state of Texas…