Dennis Elias’s Latest Tweet :. Injustice News Twitter Feed :.Mark Bennett | May 27, 2009
Brian Tannebaum takes on the idea that judges shouldn’t “legislate from the bench:” That is what extreme conservatives say when they are asked what type of judge they want on the Supreme Court. They all answer in the negative, like a church choir – ‘we don’t want a judge who ‘legislates from the bench.” Ever [...]
Mark Bennett | May 19, 2009
In Texas, a lawyer is responsible for her client until she is removed from the case by the judge. If something goes undone while the lawyer is responsible, she can be grieved and (in certain narrow circumstances) sued. So when (for example) a defendant makes bail, appointed counsel remains legally on the hook until new [...]
Mark Bennett | May 19, 2009
Today I talked with a guy named Fred. Fred had been appointed counsel (Mr. Lawrence) in January before bonding out, and had been appointed other counsel (Ms. Morris) in April, 10 weeks after bonding out. Ms. Lawrence and Mr. Morris, along with Ms. Curley, handle virtually all of the indigent representation in the 624th District [...]
Mark Bennett | May 19, 2009
The judge in this case had told me the other day that he generally doesn’t read orders before signing them; he relies on his clerks to vet the papers and signs whatever they put before him. Judges perform powerful word magic; words on the paper make something happen in the physical world. Clerks may be [...]
Mark Bennett | April 30, 2009
When the streets are flooding and the rain is coming down (as happened last Tuesday) and there are people who feel a obligation to you to travel in to downtown from their homes, there’s a right way to handle the situation and a wrong way. The right way: Some parts of town are underwater. It [...]
Mark Bennett | April 25, 2009
“It is important that the committee be made aware of the public’s desire for impeachment,” [Texas Representative Lon] Burnam said. “I encourage anyone who wishes to see justice done in this matter to come to room E2.010 in the capitol on Monday afternoon and register ‘for’ House Resolution 480.” (Email press release, via Grits.) I’ll [...]
Mark Bennett | April 22, 2009
Dear Harris County judges: The following is a non-exhaustive list of conduct, engaged in by you or your staffs, that is likely to get you grieved: Telling defendants, “If you don’t hire a lawyer, you’re going to come back every day and stay until 11:30 until you hire a lawyer.” Telling defendants, “Go hire a [...]
Mark Bennett | March 30, 2009
The Dallas Morning News reports that Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller, who recently whined about not getting Chip Babcock appointed to represent her in the Commission for Judicial Conduct’s suit against her, “failed to abide by legal requirements that she disclose nearly $2 million in real estate holdings” in a sworn [...]
Mark Bennett | March 11, 2009
This, an appeal arising out of a Houston case is, as far as I can tell, the first time ever that Judge Sharon Keller has reversed a case to a defendant’s benefit. Bailiff uses taser on man accused of photographing witness. Johnson was watching a trial in state District Judge Ruben Guerrero’s court, officials said, [...]
Mark Bennett | March 8, 2009
Houston criminal lawyer Murray Newman, to his credit, comes to the defense of his friend Judge Hanger. Good for him. Somehow he finds a tenuous connection between my views on Ms. Hanger, who hasn’t (officially) been a prosecutor in years, with collegiality or the lack thereof between defense and prosecutorial bars, but he misses the [...]
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