Defending People

the tao of criminal-defense trial lawyering

Schadenfreude, Irony, and The Defense Function [Update: Photo Added]

| January 1, 2011

Prosecutors Lester Blizzard and Kayla Allen, however, asked Ellisor for life sentences to send a message to anyone who would drive while intoxicated. (KHOU.) Howard is an unsympathetic character. Because he is an unsympathetic character, it’s easy to send him to prison for life. Blizzard and Allen were arguing for general deterrence: “send a message.” [...]

Share

Even If or Especially Since

| February 4, 2010

After Rosa Villegas-Vatres ran a red light and hit and killed Steve Morrison, she was arrested and charged with criminally negligent homicide (John Nova Lomax, Houston Press; easier to read all-on-one-page print version). Villegas-Vatres wanted to plead guilty to misdemeanor deadly conduct. The prosecutor, Brent Mayr told Steve Morrison’s family that, and warned them that [...]

Share

Anger, Retribution, Oh Crap, Splat.

| July 5, 2008

“I’ll show him!” That’s the retributive impulse in a nutshell, isn’t it? The desire, when someone angers us by making us feel a loss of control or a perceived loss of dignity, to regain control and dignity by “teaching him a lesson“? It’s the impulse driving lots of human misbehavior — control and dignity probably [...]

Share

Is Only Kelly Siegler Man Enough to Tell the Truth?

| June 14, 2008

Given that Americans’ second most common justification for the death penalty’s fairness is its provision of “satisfaction and closure” to the victim’s loved ones, it’s astounding to me that Kelly Siegler (“Prosecutor-for-Hire”, according to her tagline) admits in a blog post that there’s no such thing as closure (H/T AHCL). A successful death penalty prosecutor [...]

Share

One Less Witness

| January 14, 2008

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram brings us this story (H/T: Isiah Carey) of a 32-year-old Arlington, Texas man who believed that his 18-year-old stepson had anally raped the man’s 8-year-old daughter. After the man’s wife (the stepson’s mother) made bail on her son’s aggravated sexual assault charge despite the man’s warning that he would hurt the [...]

Share

Bad Behavior has blocked 3183 access attempts in the last 7 days.