Tag: criminal defense attorney
The decision of Texas lawmakers to legalize hemp last year had wide-ranging and unforeseen consequences. Although the legislation did not address marijuana, prosecutors started to drop hundreds of low-level marijuana possession charges. Now the City of Austin is considering its own solution by effectively decriminalizing possession of small amounts of pot altogether. The Austin City…
Cesar Fierro spent four decades on death row in Texas. The threat of the death penalty was abruptly removed in late December when Texas’ highest ranking court decided he was given faulty jury instructions at his trial. Judges at the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals vacated the Mexican national’s death sentence in December, citing incorrect…
Hate crimes are rising in Texas and Dallas saw more than any other city in the state in 2018, according to recently-released figures. The Federal Bureau of Investigations’ statistics for 2018 showed the number of hate crimes committed in Texas rose by nearly 240% from 2017 to 2018. The figures in the Uniform Crime Prevention…
A few years ago, teens vaping was an alarming trend. Now vaping at their Texas schools could leave students facing felony charges. Schools are resorting to Draconian measures to deal with a dramatic rise in teen vaping. Some are using the criminal law to its full force. It’s an alarming development that could land some…
Texas has seen some high-profile white collar crime cases in recent years. However, new data suggests prosecutions brought for corporate corruption is falling. According to the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a research center at Syracuse University that tracks federal data, white collar prosecutions fell under the Trump administration. They are down 8.5% from a year…
Homicides in Dallas are on course to hit a 10-year high by the year’s end, sparking a demand by Mayor Eric Johnson for a plan to cut violent offenses. The Dallas Morning News reported Mayor Eric Johnson wrote a letter to City Manager T.C Broadnax highlighting the stark rise in violent crime in the Dallas…
Texas has made moves to reduce its massive prison population in recent years. Some experts say the state’s reforms don’t go far enough as prisons struggle with rising health care costs associated with older inmates. Texas Department of Criminal Justice revealed the cost of prison health care rose more than 50% over the last seven…
The case of Rodney Reed, a Texas man facing execution, has made headlines across the nation in recent weeks as millions of people signed online petitions calling for the courts to take another look at the case. Texas’ highest criminal court halted Reed’s execution on Nov. 15, sending the case back to the trial court…
A standoff between Texas Governor Gregg Abbott and the City of Austin over the state capital’s liberal homelessness laws has led to a debate over the criminalization of people without a roof over their heads. Although it’s not necessarily a crime to be homeless in Texas many cities and counties make it an offense to…
In cases that come down to the word of a police officer against that of a defendant, juries often believe the police officer. However, thousands of defendants in the United States ended up behind bars on the uncorroborated evidence of discredited officers, according to a new survey. A USA TODAY Network investigation highlighted the “widespread…