Dennis Elias’s Latest Tweet :. Injustice News Twitter Feed :.Mark Bennett | January 12, 2009
I’ve learned that Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley, in a continuing legal education program (I’m not giving the State Bar of Texas $90 even to rip a copy of the video for this post), attacked the motives of all criminal defense blawgers, who in his view are “only out to make a name for [...]
Mark Bennett | December 2, 2008
As a matter of constitutional law and legal ethics, quality representation for the poor is not negotiable. If the state doesn’t want to pay for indigent defense, it needs to prosecute fewer people (or at least fewer poor people). Kansas Defenders (H/T Capital Defense Weekly). The actual experts seem to agree on this one: the [...]
Mark Bennett | December 2, 2008
Word is that the purges have begun over at the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. Some of the lawyers fired so far are very good trial lawyers of high character. They’re the greatest loss to the State, and will, if they can be successfully reeducated, likely make excellent criminal-defense lawyers. (Welcome to HCCLA!) Eliminating political [...]
Mark Bennett | November 25, 2008
Over two years ago, shortly before the most recent election for the fifteen Harris County Criminal Court at Law (misdemeanor) benches, there was a brouhaha at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center about a politically incorrect email sent by CCCL6 Judge Larry Standley to other judges: The issue: an e-mail [captioned, "What in the world [...]
Mark Bennett | November 6, 2008
From this morning’s Chronicle story (by Mary Flood and Brian Rogers) on the ouster of the Republican judges: Civil District Judge Sharolyn Wood, who lost the seat she’s had since 1985, lamented that voters have lost “about 250 years of judicial experience” in this sweep. She said Harris County’s judiciary has been kept stable by [...]
Mark Bennett | November 5, 2008
Sure, a Black man was elected president, but the big news in yesterday’s election comes from Harris County, Texas, which has a functioning 2-party political system for the first time since 1996. That year was the last in which a Democrat won a countywide race. Until last night. In this year’s countywide races there were [...]
Mark Bennett | November 1, 2008
“We want judges who interpret law, not make law.” is ignorant right-wing hogwash. We all agree that law needs interpretation. It rarely springs fully-formed from the legislature, so that its meaning is clear to all who read it. Even the U.S. Constitution needs interpretation — it doesn’t explicitly address every conceivable situation. So we do [...]
Mark Bennett | October 21, 2008
From the mailbag: Please don’t take my unique questioning ideas personally, as I don’t know and I am just asking you what you think. I was wondering whether being openly political on your professional legal blog may sometimes be unwise. I have written or emailed other lawyers the same question. I also feel passionately about [...]
Mark Bennett | October 17, 2008
From a 2007 interview with improvisational comedy teacher Keith Johnstone: GM: And you won’t be nervous. KJ: No. Why should I be nervous? So I can screw up? If you can’t screw up, you have to be nervous. I can’t win them all. Usually it goes fine. But the one thing I mustn’t do is [...]
Mark Bennett | October 16, 2008
Governor Palin’s relentless promotion of the idea that literally anybody can run this country got me thinking, but it was Senator McCain’s leveling plan to rescue the economy by spending my money bailing out those who weren’t savvy enough to avoid buying houses that they couldn’t afford (in some ways these Republicans are too liberal [...]
Bad Behavior has blocked 2453 access attempts in the last 7 days.
