Author: Mick Mickelsen
On October 14, 2010, my client, Gayland Bradford, was scheduled for execution. I began representing Gayland about ten years ago. At that time Gayland had been tried once; had his case reversed on appeal; tried a second time; had his case affirmed on appeal; and had his state petition for a writ of habeas corpus…
We have previously blogged on Defending Child Pornography Offenses in Federal Court. As we explained, federal prosecutors are prosecuting child pornography offenses at an astounding rate both here in the Northern District of Texas and throughout the country. We also discussed the dramatic changes over the years in the federal sentencing guidelines for child pornography….
On October 13th, after five days of trial, a jury in federal court in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas returned a “not guilty” verdict for my client who had been charged with defrauding the IRS. The client, along with his two brothers, were charged with conspiring to file false…
What are White Collar Crimes? There was an excellent investigative article the appeared last week in USA Today. The article is entitled “Prosecutors’ Conduct Can Tip Justice Scales”. The article describes what happens when federal prosecutors have a win-at-all-costs approach when their true calling is to do justice. It describes horrific instances of prosecutors hiding…
As a defense lawyer I like to win trials. Given that in felony trials the State wins in front of the jury about 90% of the time, all defense lawyers who have their heart in the job relish a in. Winning a high publicity trial is nirvana. Not only does a lawyer enjoy the win,…
In state court in Texas, plea agreements almost always involve a plea to a certain sentence whether it be a particular term of probation or a particular number of days or months in jail or prison. Like most contracts, each side knows what it is getting and what it is giving up when a defendant…
President Obama recently signed legislation reducing, but not eliminating, the disparate ways in which federal criminal law penalizes those involved with crack cocaine and those involved with powder cocaine. This becomes the second small step in an attempt to eliminate the unjust fashion in which the federal drug laws distinguish between crack cocaine and powder…
After 14 days of deliberations the jurors were unable to reach a verdict on all but one count in Governor Blagojevich’s trial. So the question on everyone’s mind who is following this case is what is likely to happen next. Before I attempt to answer that questions I want to recap a little history. Blagojevich…
Now that British Petroleum’s deep water well in the Gulf of Mexico is no longer spewing oil, at least for the time being, and hopefully soon a relief well will be established, the public’s attention will turn more to issue of punishing the petroleum conglomerate. BP is a fabulously wealthy entity and naturally people will…
Clients often wait to retain us until they are actually indicted. Many times, however, had the client come to us when they first became aware they were under criminal investigation they might have avoided indictment all together or, at least, been in a better position to defend themselves once they were indicted. Just as it…