In case the five or six of you that might actually read this blog on a regular basis were wondering, I have been in sunny San Antonio for this year's Rusty Duncan Advanced Criminal Law Seminar. I wanted to try a running blog of the seminar, but in reality, my head hurt too much to even try to do that. So instead, I will offer a few observations.
Houston DWI attorney offered some great insight into Drug Recognition Experts. As it turns out, they aren't really experts at all!
Reagan Wynn of Fort Worth gave an intriguing speech about the law of self-defense. There is some real havoc that can be raised in such a case. I'm really looking forward to my upcoming self-defense trial.
San Antonioin - not my favorite Texas city, but not my least favorite either.
Randy Shaeffer spoke about mitigation evidence, mostly it seemed in terms of federal defense. He hammered home that you should really do a sentencing memorandum. How can you effectively practice in federal court and not do that?
If you can't simply read the rules of appellate procedure, you probably shouldn't be handling appeals. At least that was the gist of Judge Johnson of the Court of Criminal Appeals.
Speaking of the CCA, I was happy to see they affirmed the Second Court of Appeal factual insufficiency ruling on a case of mine last week. Grotti v. State, PD-134-07. Factual sufficiency is alive and well.
I found Professor Jeff Fisher's speech on the Confrontation Clause to be exceptional. Professor Fisher is the attorney who won not only Crawford, but also Blakely, Davis and now, Kennedy. That's quite a track record in front of the Supreme Court.
I hope I can be as cool and Gerry Goldstein when I'm his age. Hell, I wish I was that cool now.
What is it about listening to Gerry Goldstein that makes me want to take the worst case on my docket, reject that offer to reduce the case and immediately set the damn thing for jury trial?
You gotta have a shot of Goldstein at least once a year to pump you up...
Posted by: Jamie | July 01, 2008 at 10:05 PM
JS,
I think we have just coined a new phrase: "Doing shots of Goldstein" to describe sticking it to the man!
I like it.
Posted by: Matlock | July 02, 2008 at 12:06 PM
In case the five or six of you that might actually read this blog on a regular basis were wondering, I have been in sunny San Antonio for this year's Rusty Duncan Advanced Criminal Law Seminar. I wanted to try a running blog of the seminar, but in reality, my head hurt too much to even try to do that. So instead, I will offer a few observations.
Posted by: Ricky | September 17, 2008 at 12:37 AM
But I can certainly see the reasoning behind Matlock's argument, at least for criminalizing DWI only after multiple offenses or if injury or property damage result. After all, non-drunk drivers kill more people than drunk ones; not every risk denotes a criminal act. The current approach treats defendants as cash cows with little regard for prevention.
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