Dennis Elias’s Latest Tweet :. Injustice News Twitter Feed :.Mark Bennett | February 8, 2008
Scott Greenfield has an interesting pair of recent posts: The Conflicted World of Assigned Counsel and today’s Rebirth of the Megatrial. In the first, Scott argues that New York’s appointed counsel system was not intended to, and should not, provide livings for criminal-defense lawyers: [T]here should never have been an 18b bar to begin with. [...]
Mark Bennett | February 8, 2008
I went down to JP Court on the beach in Galveston County this morning, not really expecting to have to try a case. So of course there were 24 potential jurors waiting in the courtroom when I strolled in (I was 20 minutes late because I didn’t factor the ferry ride into my travel time), [...]
Mark Bennett | December 11, 2007
How, without putting your client on the stand, might you counter the government’s “nobody would trust another person with x dollars worth of drugs unless the other person knew he had the drugs” argument in a trial in which knowledge is at issue? I’m looking for novel and useful approaches.
Mark Bennett | December 6, 2007
So . . . the Government puts on this witness, see? And this witness, she works for Air France, right? So the Government puts her on the witness stand in a federal jury trial, and asks her about airfares. They want to know what the lowest fare from Houston to Port Harcourt was in April [...]
Mark Bennett | December 2, 2007
Last Monday I went to federal court to help my friend (and fellow dinosaur) Norm pick a jury on a cocaine case. Before the jury panel was brought in, the judge handled some motions in limine. She became frustrated, first with the prosecutor and then with my friend because she thought that they should both [...]
Mark Bennett | November 27, 2007
In this post about Gerry Spence’s defense of Geoffrey Fieger (well, it’s not really about that; it’s about the egos of Gerry Spence [who boasts he's never lost a criminal case] and Geoffrey Fieger . . . or maybe all criticism is autobiographical and it’s not really about that either . . .), my New [...]
Mark Bennett | November 20, 2007
There has been some ado in the blawgosphere lately about the fact that Texas juries could convict people of murder, and then give them probation. (It’s not the law anymore — for murders after September 1, 2007, probation will not be an option for the jury.) Furriners (anyone unfamiliar with Texas culture, including reporters from [...]
Mark Bennett | November 19, 2007
Scott and Norm and Gideon and Stephen have been having a discussion, started by Norm, about lawyers “keeping score” — keeping track of (and, incidentally, boasting about) their won/lost records. Norm points out that a jury trial really isn’t a sporting event, and the playing field isn’t level. I can’t promise any client that a [...]
Mark Bennett | November 16, 2007
First, only the criminal-defense lawyers will truly appreciate this setup (it actually happened today in trial): Prosecutor (to a defense punishment witness, before the jury): D would benefit from college classes, wouldn’t he? Witness: Yes, I suppose he would. Prosecutor: And did you know that inmates can take college classes in prison? Witness: Well, I [...]
Mark Bennett | November 15, 2007
Two guilty verdicts. An acquittal would have been a victory; a mistrial would have been a victory; probation would be a victory too. These two young men don’t need to go to prison. It’s tragic that the complainant lost his life. It sucks, it’s unjust, it’s unfair, and nothing this jury does can possibly make [...]
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