Category: Criminal Appeals
Texas has an unenviable reputation as the execution capital of the United States. Although the number of executions carried out in Texas has fallen in recent years, it remains ground zero for capital punishment. In some cases the state has pursued the ultimate sanction even when alarming questions linger over the original convictions. A case…
Manuel Velez was on death row in Texas for four of the nine years he had been incarcerated. Last week it was disclosed he should never have been in jail, let alone facing the death penalty. The 49-year-old building worker from Texas was released from Huntsville prison a free man last week. He was arrested…
Robert Wayne Harris looks set to be the eighth man to be executed in Texas this year after the Court of Criminal Appeals denied the death row inmate a stay of execution. The judges decided against stopping the execution, despite some disturbing evidence about the adequacy of the original defense case more than a decade…
Clint Broden was hired to represent a client on appeal after the client was convicted of three counts of money laundering, a white collar crime, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The client was sentenced to 252 months (21 years) in federal prison. Even with good-time credit, the client…
In 2011, Texas enacted a program to certify specialists in criminal appellate law. There has long been board certification in criminal law, so why is there a need for certification in Dallas criminal appellate law? Criminal Defense is Not a Criminal Appeals Many people hiring a lawyer to handle a criminal appeal do not realize…
On December 10, 2008, the Court of Criminal Appeals (the Texas Supreme Court for Criminal Cases), in a case that I argued, handed down a decision reversing the lower court. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is arguably the most unfriendly appellate court for criminal defendants in the country, so anytime a defendant wins in…
In the annual 2013 report issued by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, it was estimated that the Court granted oral argument in 10.5% or criminal cases. The Report also indicates that the reversal rate in the Fifth Circuit is approximately 6.6% in criminal cases. In contrast, Clint Broden has obtained…