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If Halle Smith Had Been White, Would She Be Alive Today?
I had a client recently—call him Sam—who got in the law’s bad graces for some conduct involving alcohol and the brandishing of a firearm in his garage while his young daughter slept upstairs. The daughter—well-fed, well-loved, well-adjusted and well-cared-for—was never in any danger and never even knew what had happened. Only a total idiot would […]
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Is it Racist?
Anonymous Harris County prosecutor AHCL, in a post that illustrates the need that she remain anonymous, wrote yesterday about African-American Jurors, Batson, and the D.A.’s Office. She said, prosecutors are very much aware of the fact that probably every African-American member of a jury panel has been treated like crap at some point during his […]
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The Prosecutor’s Reply
The prosecutor whose “Canadians” email I wrote about here and here responds: Vivian King knows NOTHING about “the real story.” It is probably a waste of breath to defend my reputation since it sounds like a portion of the defense bar has made up their minds, but to me it is never a wasted effort […]
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O Canada
I wrote a bit here about an email that circulated through the Rosenthal / Siegler DA’s office mentioning “Canadians” on the jury. “Canadian”, as it turns out, is a cryptoracist code word for “Nigger”. (Others may coyly write “the N-word” instead: it seems to me that when we use that circumlocution we insulate ourselves, to […]
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Memo to Kelly Siegler: Blame Canada
More news from the Chuck Rosenthal / Kelly Siegler DA’s office: a 2003 email has surfaced, from one ADA to the rest of the prosecutors and the investigators, congratulating a prosecutor on convicting a guy while overcoming “a subversively good defense by Matt Hennessey that had some Canadians on the jury feeling sorry for the […]
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“We Will Show that the Defendant is a Con Artist”
I don’t know what to say. This was supposed to be Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Smith’s opening statement — a time not for argument but for describing what the evidence is expected to show. The accused is not charged with being a con artist. Rather, he’s charged with possession of cocaine, at issue is whether […]