Child sexual assault cases can pose the most significant difficulties for criminal defense attorneys, especially in politically conservative states whose legislatures have erected evidentiary and procedural roadblocks to an effective defense. And it is in these same states, such as…
Category: Sex Crimes Against Children
2022
On October 5, 2022, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the two convictions of Stoyan Anastassov for the second-degree felony of indecency with a child by contact. The jury assessed punishment at nine years in prison on one charge,…
2022
Category: Appeals | Due Process | Sex Crimes | Sex Crimes Against Children
What happens when the judge, the prosecutor, and defense counsel fail in their respective duties to preserve a criminal defendant’s right to a fair and impartial trial?
On July 22, 2022, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) answered this…
2022
Category: Child Abuse | Illegal Pornography | Sex Crimes Against Children
Child pornography is a serious criminal offense that causes immediate and profound revulsion. Make no mistake about that.
The recent U.S. Senate confirmation hearings relating to Judge Kenji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court created the impression…
2021
Category: Crimes Against Children | Sex Crimes Against Children
Michael Charles Hill was convicted by a Hunt County, Texas jury in April 2012 for aggravated sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child. He was sentenced to consecutive(stacked) life terms. A grand jury had indicted Hill in…
2021
Sex offenses are among the most severe in Texas. If you or someone you love is accused of a sex crime in this state, they will face, if convicted, harsh sentencing and extreme sex offender registration upon release. Unfortunately Texas…
2021
Category: Criminal Law | Sex Crimes | Sex Crimes Against Children
There are roughly 3,000 certified Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (“SANEs”) in the United States. SANEs now operate in all fifty states and the District of Columbia. The past decade has seen SANEs become both ubiquitous and controversial in criminal trials…
2021
Category: Sex Crimes | Sex Crimes Against Children
Article 38.072 of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure—more commonly known as the “outcry” statute—is thorny legal terrain in child sex cases.
The statute was enacted in 1985 as an exception to the longstanding prohibition against hearsay testimony in…
2021
Category: Sex Crimes | Sex Crimes Against Children | Sexual Assault
The rules of evidence generally prohibit the use of crimes, wrongs, or other bad acts to prove a person’s character to show that a person acted accordingly on a particular occasion. This rule assures that the person accused is tried…
2020
Category: Criminal Justice Reform | Sex Crimes | Sex Crimes Against Children
A false allegation of child sexual assault can destroy a person’s life quicker and more thoroughly than any other crime of violence, including a sexual assault of an adult. As criminal defense attorneys, we know this to be true because…