Category: Criminal Defense
The important role played by a Texas forensic lab has been highlighted in relation to a high profile murder investigation in Massachusetts. Fox News reported the authorities in Massachusetts are sending evidence from the Molly Bish homicide investigation to the Orchid Cellmark lab in Dallas. Bish was just 16 in 2000 when she disappeared at…
The case of a female Texas trooper who faces a sexual assault trial reveals the thin line law enforcement officers can tread between performing their job and breaking the law. CBS 11 News reported Dallas County Grand Jury recently indicted trooper Kelley Helleson on two counts of sexual assault and two counts of official oppression….
Texas has a bad record for wrongful convictions with more than 100 coming to light in recent years. And the revelations keep coming. This week in Corsicana a 58-year-old Texas man walked free from jail after serving almost 30 years for a crime he didn’t commit. Back in 1984 Randolph Arledge was sentenced to 99…
Criminal Justice reforms due to be considered in Texas this year could help prevent defendants making false confessions to police officers. While it makes no sense to confess to a crime you didn’t commit, criminal defense lawyers often see cases in which people who are arrested are persuaded to confess by heavy handed interview techniques….
A Texas school bus driver is just the latest in a string of female school employees in Texas to be charged with having sexual contact with a student. Diana Almanza, a 47-year-old bus driver, has been charged with sexual assault of a child, reported KPRC.com Almanza worked for Pearland Independent School District. School officials said…
Texas inmate Michael Blair ended up on death row for the gruesome murder of a 7-year-old Texas girl. His protestations that he was innocent fell on deaf ears until more than 10 years later genetic tests proved he did not kill the girl. Now he is asking the state of Texas for nearly $1 million…
A high profile case in Texas explores the circumstances under which negligence can become murder. Jessica Tata is accused of being responsible for a fire at a home day care in Houston that killed four children and injured three others. Prosecutors allege that Tata left hot oil cooking on a stove at her home day…
Under the Texas Penal Code a charge of intoxication manslaughter can be brought if a person: operates a motor vehicle in a public place, operates an aircraft, a watercraft, or an amusement ride, or assembles a mobile amusement ride; and is intoxicated and by reason of that intoxication causes the death of another by accident…
We have written often about the importance of hiring an experienced attorney to represent you in the event you are charged with a child pornography offense in federal court. The penalties are simply much too severe to risk retaining an attorney who has not had significant experience in handling these types of cases. A recent…
When you are wrongly convicted of a crime you can waste much of your life in jail. Even when you are finally released your quality of life may not be the way it would have been before the miscarriage of justice occurred. The sad case of James Lee Woodard is a pertinent example. Just before…