Mark Bennett | October 30, 2009
Scott Greenfield makes the world a little safer for blawgers (via Houston criminal-defense lawyer Paul Kennedy). RIP John O’Quinn. A great lawyer and, like many great lawyers, not without personal demons (Rick O’Casey, Houston Chronicle). Memo from Pat Lykos to Harris County prosecutors: if you violate Batson you’re “incompetent;” if you violate Brady it’s the […]
Mark Bennett | March 27, 2009
It’s an encouraging sign that, when two prosecutors this week used seven of their peremptory challenges to strike black potential jurors, resulting in a sustained Batson challenge and the dismissal of the jury, Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos disciplined them. Forcing a prosecutor who uses peremptory challenges on the basis of race to start […]
Mark Bennett | March 12, 2009
Houston DWI lawyer Paul Kennedy notes that Harris County DA Pat Lykos has ordered DNA testing in every case in which testing is available and relevant. The Chronicle says: Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos will require prosecutors to test DNA evidence in every case where it is available and relevant to prevent miscarriages of […]
Mark Bennett | March 10, 2009
If you come here for the snark, please avert your eyes. I’m about to be nice. The blogosphere thrives on conflict, rather than niceness, so this post is not going to win me any readers. But I spend a bit of space here critical of public servants’ failure to serve the public. Rest assured that […]
Mark Bennett | February 19, 2009
Murray Newman posts about Pat Lykos’s terrific success utter and complete failure in making the Harris County District Attorney’s Office more diverse. Not only are there not more non-white lawyers there than there were before Lykos came along, but there will also be fewer non-white lawyers in the Office a week from Friday. My only […]
Mark Bennett | December 31, 2008
Murray Newman laments what he expects to be the loss of prosecutorial discretion in the Harris County District Attorney’s Office under the Lykos / Leitner regime. Murray misses the old days. Ah, those glorious Rosenthal / Siegler days, when prosecutors had discretion — discretion enough to run amok… when 29-year-old misdemeanor chiefs with no life […]
Mark Bennett | December 27, 2008
For those Harris County ADAs who want, very anonymously, to express their feelings about being ordered to Pat Lykos’s coronation ceremony on January 1, Miami criminal-defense lawyer Brian Tannebaum has posted a poll.
Mark Bennett | December 25, 2008
Hearing about Harris County District Attorney-Elect Pat Lykos’s command that all Assistant District Attorneys appear dressed in court clothes on a national holiday for her coronation, Miami criminal-defense lawyer Brian Tannebaum raised a good question: You all gonna take a stand and not show up, or be sheep? (I think “you all” is Floridian for “all […]
Mark Bennett | December 24, 2008
The following was posted on Murray Newman’s blog yesterday, but after Murray was double-plus-unhired from the office he took it down. I’m reconstructing it as nearly as I can here (with my own flourish), not because I think Murray has no backbone, nor because it’s particularly good (it was created in collaboration among Murray’s commenters), […]
Mark Bennett | December 23, 2008
In yet another attempt at morale-building, Pat Lykos is ordering every Harris County assistant district attorney to attend her swearing-in ceremony on January 1, 2009. January 1, 2009 is a county holiday. Does anyone remember the boxing video game from the ‘80s? You’d hit your opponent, and the machine would say “body blow! body blow!” […]
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