The last-minute presentation of sexual assault evidence against Judge Brett Kavanaugh has put his Supreme Court nomination limbo. Judge Kavanaugh was not my first choice, of those on the Trump list, but I see problems on both sides of the accusation. Sexual assault cases can be the most difficult to…
Under the affirmative defenses, you can YouTube/Napster/whatever music all day long apparently and be okay under this statute. Although, this is not advised. You may also GPS your directions, report illegal activity or report an emergency, not by calling 911, but apparently texting or emailing them or another person. You…
Six years ago, Texas Governor Rick Perry vetoed a ban on texting while driving as an affront to personal liberty. This year, a Republican legislature and Republican governor said that personal liberty needs to be curtailed in the sake of their view of public safety. As of September 1, 2017,…
Under Sec. 22.08 of the Penal Code, is it a crime to aid another in suicide. That crime is defined as “(a) A person commits an offense if, with intent to promote or assist the commission of suicide by another, he aids or attempts to aid the other to commit…
This begs the question, how could encouragement alone ever be the but for of another person actually killing himself? A jury would have to find that but for Ms. Carter’s conduct, the deceased would not have killed himself. Then, the state would have to show also that the concurrent cause…
Emotions ran high last week as Michelle Carter was sentenced to prison under Massachusetts’ manslaughter law for encouraging her boyfriend to kill himself, which he did. Under the apparent facts of the case, she overcame with words her boyfriend’s reluctance to kill himself due to her crazed need for attention. …
This section went all the way to the United States Supreme Court in Deal v. United States 113 S.Ct. 1993 (1993), in which Mr. Deal got a bad deal at court of 105 years in prison for possessing a firearm during five bank robberies. The Court explored whether “second or…
Thus, if you bring a firearm to a crime of violence or a drug trafficking crime, you will have a mandatory minimum of five years in prison. If you brandish it, which means show it or make it visible to other people, it goes up to a mandatory minimum of…
It is a very bad idea to possess a firearm while robbing a bank, committing any federal crime of violence, or trafficking drugs. Congress has imposed stiff, sometimes unconsciounable penalties for doing so. These include mandatory minimums that, with multiple offenses, could get your mandatory minimum sentence into centuries of…
These policies have changed the dynamics of DWI defense in Grayson and Collin County. When I started practicing, around half of DWI trials did not involve a chemical test, but now almost all of them do. Back then we would mainly argue over the performance and validity of the field…