Dennis Elias’s Latest Tweet :. Injustice News Twitter Feed :.Mark Bennett | September 14, 2010
Most of this year’s Harris County judicial elections are worthy of little more than a shrug. I had a sorely disillusioning experience trying a case for almost two weeks before former criminal-defense lawyer Ruben Guerrero, who a) is sorely deficient in judicial temperament and knowledge; b) even the jurors could tell was biased toward the [...]
Mark Bennett | August 21, 2010
Divorce lawyer John Clinton, running for criminal court judge, seems to be saying that when he was a Houston police officer he “amassed years of trial experience.” (Full video here.) This could be true only in the sense in which a career criminal has amassed years of policing experience. Maybe Clinton spoke awkwardly, and meant [...]
Mark Bennett | April 23, 2010
Last week Houston judge Susan Brown jailed a woman for thanking God for her husband’s acquittal (Rick Casey, Chronicle). “It wasn’t an angry thing,” she said of the wife’s outburst. “Every black preacher teaches us to thank the Lord.” Um, okay, that justifies 36 hours in jail? [Update: According to criminal-defense lawyer Vivian King, who [...]
Mark Bennett | March 18, 2010
Someone using John Coby’s email address and a link to his blog tried to leave the following comment to this post: Your article is a bit too long for a blog entry. I couldnt finish it. I emailed Coby to ask if it was actually him leaving this moronic comment. He did not respond. Judging, [...]
Mark Bennett | March 8, 2010
I had a conversation recently with a woman who had accused her husband of hitting her. I was explaining her position in the criminal case: “You won’t have a lawyer, since you’re not a party. You’re a witness.” “I’m not a witness,” she replied indignantly, “I’m a victim.” This is, I’m afraid, the spirit of [...]
Mark Bennett | October 14, 2009
Texas Governor Rick “Goodhair” Perry says that Cameron Todd Willingham is a “monster” and a “bad man” who murdered his children (Houston Chronicle). He is convinced that Willingham was guilty of his crime. That’s good enough for me. If the Governor of Texas says someone is a monster, then dadgummit he’s a monster. Why is [...]
Mark Bennett | June 27, 2009
Defending People reader “Ryan”, writing at Plain Error, the official blog of the Innocence Project of Florida, responds to my “Law and Justice Explained.” post: As someone with the status just above armchair philosopher (disclosure: I will be attending graduate school for a PhD in philosophy in the fall), I have a few words on [...]
Mark Bennett | May 29, 2009
The Harris County Democratic Party has announced its slate of candidates for criminal courts for the 2010 elections. First the District Court (felony) benches: Darrell Jordan, opposing Debbie Mantooth-Stricklin (whose husband Don lost to Herb Ritchie last year) for the 180th District Court, is a lawyer with three years of experience in a general practice. [...]
Mark Bennett | April 1, 2009
From Brian Rogers’s and James Pinkerton’s article in tomorrow’s Chronicle about the DA’s new immigration plea policy: “We think the impact would be minimal, and we should be able to handle that difference,” said Kenneth Landgrebe, who heads ICE detention and removal operations. If the impact (!) on ICE detention and removal operations would be [...]
Mark Bennett | January 16, 2009
Momentum is building in Texas to reduce possession of less than a gram of cocaine from a state jail felony (six months to two years in state jail, day-for-day) to a class A misdemeanor (up to a year in county jail, with time off for good conduct); 16 of 22 Harris County felony court judges [...]
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