Author: Broden & Mickelsen, LLP
Date rape allegations are taken very seriously by authorities, particularly if a drug is used. In Texas, the authorities are investigating allegations of date rape at the Texas Capitol. The TV station KVUE reported a Capitol staffer claimed she was drugged with a date-rape drug by a lobbyist during a meeting in downtown Austin. The…
In recent years, the instances of credit card fraud have continued to increase. As a result, prosecutors take credit card fraud very seriously, and the penalties for a conviction can be tougher than you might realize. Furthermore, as federal law enforcement continues to develop more sophisticated tools for tracking down cyber criminals, it’s reasonable to…
A defendant’s mental illness makes him or her less morally culpable of a crime and should be taken into consideration as a reason to avoid the death penalty, according to a U.S. Supreme Court ruling. However, states can and do execute defendants who suffer from mental illnesses. Texas is no exception. The Death Penalty Information Center lists…
As criminal defense lawyers, we do everything in our power to keep defendants out of jail. We realize that Texas’s jails and prisons are hazardous places that can harm inmates. This was again illustrated by the tragic death of Marvin Scott III in Collin County. Police arrested Scott, a Black man, in Allen for allegedly…
Hate crimes again made headlines in recent weeks when a gunman killed eight people, including six Asian women, in Atlanta. The Biden administration faces pressure to bring hate crime charges against shooter Robert Aaron Long, 21, over the killings. However, the incident demonstrated flaws in the federal legislation, according to the Washington Post. The hate…
Thousands of prisoners have been exonerated in recent years for wrongful convictions, amounting to almost 25,000 lost years behind bars. Texas leads the nation on exonerations. In 2019, the most recent year figures are available for, Texas had the joint second highest number of exonerations in the country. However, the state leads the table of…
A new bill filed in Texas would make it more difficult for police to withhold body camera footage of fatal encounters involving police officers and criminal suspects. The bill was filed after prosecutors brought a murder charge against an officer, almost a year after the fatal shooting of an unarmed black and Hispanic man in…
For more than four decades Texas Rangers have used the controversial practice of hypnosis to interrogate crime suspects and witnesses. The Texas Department of Public Safety has finally stopped using the technique. The Dallas Morning News reported the decision comes less than a year after its two-part series “The Memory Room” which raised troubling questions…
The system of cash bail for defendants is controversial. Opponents say those who cannot afford to pay languish in jails even if they have been charged with minor crimes. However, the system is being overhauled nationwide after Illinois became the first state to abolish it, and a large Texas jurisdiction is allowing people to be…
Important changes in how sexual assaults are investigated and victims are treated were enacted in Texas in 2019. Advocates of change are hopeful of further momentum in 2021. The reforms enacted two years ago came on the heels of the #MeToo movement, the Texas Tribune reported. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in Austin…