The Houston Chronicle reports that a Dallas Man is free on bond after serving 14 years of a 40 year murder sentence. Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins discovered police did not disclose evidence that incriminated another suspect. Unbelievable. The second most disgusting thing about convicting an innocent person is that the REAL KILLER is still on the loose.
At this point, it is unclear if this Defendant is innocent, but it is crystal clear that he did not have a fair trial or investigation. This is something one would expect to find in tyrannical, corrupt country, not Dallas, Texas. The man deserves a fair trial.
It is time for the legislatureto criminalize the intentional hiding of exculpatory evidence. The law already requires the government to inform the accused of evidence suggesting they are innocent. In the past few years, the State of Texas has spent millions of dollars compensating the wrongfully accused. There are very few crimes in the Texas Penal Code worse than taking away years from an innocent citizen.
As for Craig Watkins, it is impossible not to admire his commitment to what is right. Hopefully, he will be an inspiration to prosecutors and an example of how to do that job.
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According to the Texas Penal Code, a person can be charged with the offense of terroristic threat if he/she “threatens to commit any offense involving violence to any person or property with intent to place any person in fear of imminent, serious bodily injury.”
This is a class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to 180 days in county jail and/or a maximum $2,000 fine. However, if the threat is made against a member of the family or a public servant, the charge becomes a class A misdemeanor, which is punishable by up to 1 year in county jail and/or up to a $4,000 fine.
Usually, this sort of offense is the result of an argument between two people in an amorous relationship. Therefore, if you have an argument with someone else, be careful what you say. Saying that you are going to kill someone or that you are going to seriously hurt someone with the intent to scare the other person, even if you don’t plan to hurt that person, might actually place you in a bind.
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Has the cornerstone phrase of our justice system turned into a meaningless cliche? Innocent until PROVEN guilty is frequently muttered by prospective jurors during jury selection. Five seconds later, the same juror is “undecided” on whether the defendant is guilty and the EVIDENCE portion of the trial has not even begun.
Here is another less-known saying, “you can beat the rap, but you can’t beat the ride.” Simply put, whether you are innocent or not, going through the criminal justice system is going to hurt in many ways. A defendant has to battle stress, anxiety, judgment by others, and financial strain of bonding out of jail and hiring an experienced criminal defense lawyer.
For example, ABC 13 reported that a well respected Harris County Judge was indicted for official oppression this past week. At some point we will learn what the evidence is and how strong of a case the District Attorney has against the Judge. Either way, the ride has already begun to take a toll.
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The Houston Chronicle reported this morning that a Houston-area criminal defense lawyer, whose client is accused of injury to a child in the death of a four-year-old child, is seeking the identities of people who posted comments about the case in online discussion forums at websites of The Houston Chronicle, the Conroe Courier, KHOU-TV (Channel 11) and KTRK-TV (Channel 13). On the one hand there is a societal interest in protecting the privacy rights of those who post comments on the internet. There are many legitimate reasons why a person might wish to remain anonymous in posting a comment in a discussion forum. For example, a person might fear retribution from a crazy, unknown individual who is offended by a comment or who misinterprets the comment. A person might wish to share a private experience for the benfit of other people who are going through the same thing. Or, a person might have a question about a frightening medical condition and the person might want to obtain the needed information anonymously. Allowing wholesale disclosure of online identities might have a chilling effect on people with legitimate reasons for posting anonymously on the internet.
But the right to privacy is not absolute and it should not trump an individual’s constitutional right to a fair trial. Too often people aligned with certain advocacy groups will flood public discussion forums with comments that appear calculated to undermine an accused’s right to a fair trial, which includes an impartial jury panel. At times it may be tempting for police officers, detectives and others associated with the prosecution of a case to participate in relevant discussion forums. If people with inside information about a case (or people connected with those same individuals) decide they wish to comment publically about a case, they should be prepared to do so in a court of law. An accused has the right to confront and cross-examine all of the witnesses against him.
Do you still believe the right to online anonymity is or should be absolute? Judges routinely permit subpoenas of internet service providers (ISP), whose customers are suspected of criminal activities over the internet. The same judges routinely sign search warrants to allow police to search the homes and business of ISP customers, once their identities have been revealed through the subpoenaed records.
But what about people who aren’t even accused of criminal wrongdoing? How anxious would any of us be to stop a subpoena for the online identity of an anonymous poster, if it appeared that the poster knew the whereabouts of a kidnapped child? I am interested to hear what others have to say.
Very truly yours,
Grant Scheiner (Not Anonymous)
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On Tuesday, September 1, 2009, several laws will go into effect in Texas, including a law which makes online harassment a third-degree felony.
This new law specifies that a person can be charged with online harassment if he or she uses the name of another person to create a Web page or to post one or more messages on a commercial social networking site without obtaining the other person’s consent with the intent to harm, defraud, intimidate, or threaten any person. Online harassment is punishable by 2-10 years in prison and a fine not to exceed $10,000.
Those who blog frequently or use Facebook and/or Twitter should be especially careful. For instance, if you have an argument with a friend or a co-worker, think twice before venting online, because you could be charged with online harassment.
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The Houston Chronicle posted a story today about a Houston man, Ernest Sonnier, who was sentenced to life in prison in 1986 for aggravated kidnapping, but who today is allowed to go free pending more investigation. The Harris County District Attorney’s Office did not oppose his release.
Ernest Sonnier was charged with aggravated kidnapping for allegedly kidnapping and raping a woman in 1985. Apparently 2 men kidnapped the woman and drove towards San Antonio. During the drive, they each abused her sexually. Although 2 men were responsible for the crime, only one person was convicted and as it seems, wrongfully so. DNA testing has since proven that those responsible are actually 2 convicted felons and not Sonnier.
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Abc 13 reportsthat Bryant Munoz was arrested for taking a cell phone picture up a woman’s skirt. Allegedly, this occurred at the Harris County Criminal Courthouse, which we can all agree is not the best place to engage in debauchery. He is charged with the State Jail Felony of Improper Photography. The charge is found in Section 21.15 of the Texas Penal Code.
Improper Photography is rarely filed. I am not sure if that is because not many people do it, not many people get caught doing it, or it goes unreported. Although Munoz is a 29 year old man, I could see teenage boys doing something like this at school. This case should be a warning to all parents and it would be worth it to sit down with teens and explain that their cell phone cameras could cause them to be charged with a felony.
Should this be a felony? Munoz would have been charged with a misdemeanor if he had punched the woman in the nose, drove drunk through Houston or even broken into a car. Munoz apparently lacks judgment and may have other issues, but I think the legislature may have over-criminalized this one.
I am interested to hear what his attorney argues, if anything.
admin Uncategorized Criminal Court Harris County Penal Code Attorney
The Houston Chronicle reports that there is data showing that crime is “outpacing” Houston officers. Well, that is not exactly the problem.
Gary Blankinship, president of the Houston Police Officers Union said, “We have to learn to work smarter and try to use technology a little bit more.” That is not the problem either.
As a taxpayer, it is frustrating to see the Houston Police Department budget has increased from 480 million in 2004 to 680 million today, without increasing the number of police officers. So where is all of that money going? The article does not state it, but there is a large portion going to overtime for officers sitting in municipal traffic courts and misdemeanor county courts in Harris County.
Houston ranks as one of the highest in the nation for violent crime and is number one in Texas. That is not good for anyone. Yet, HPD whines about a lack of manpower and a skimpy budget as excuses for this spike in crime. All the while, there is no oversight in non-violent divisions. I assure you the officers in the HPD Vice Squad – which investigates prostitution and other petty crimes – have a full day ahead of themselves. Supported by our taxpayer dollars, undercover HPD Vice Squad officers will be getting full-body massages at Houston-area “spas” and trying to get young Asian and Latina women to agree to have sex with the officers. (Seriously! Houston cops actually spend their time doing this, and so do Harris County Sheriff’s deputies! Sometimes undercover officers will persistently nag a woman to agree to have sex for a fee, despite that the women often repeatedly tell them “no”. Some of these undercover cops will spend up to an hour getting their naked bodies massaged, claiming it is necessary, in order to make a ”bust” for one of their “sting” operations.) To top it off, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office enthusiastically accepts prostitution charges, even in cases when the police officers don’t even bother to video tape the “encounter” or even audio tape the alleged conversation between the undercover cop and the woman giving the massage.
But not to worry. There will always be plenty of Houston police officers stationed around Houston to catch people for driving with expired inspection stickers.
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Sexting is a modern phenomenon that our grandparents would have never imagined. Sexting occurs when someone sends material which is sexual in nature via a cell phone text to someone else’s cell phone. Although high school kids might think that sending a racy photo is just done for fun, that simple act can have very serious consequences. Many states, including Texas, have begun prosecuting senders and recipients of these sexts in criminal court.
A 16 year-old girl who sends a nude picture of herself to her boyfriend’s cell phone can be charged with distribution of child pornography, while the boyfriend who receives the sext can be charged with possession of child pornography.
According to the Texas Penal Code Section 43.26, a person commits the offense of possession of child pornography if “the person knowingly or intentionally possesses visual material that visually depicts a child younger than 18 years of age at the time the image of the child was made who is engaging in sexual conduct, and the person knows that the material depicts the child.”
If you need a criminal defense attorney that can handle cases such as these, contact Scheiner Law Group, P.C.
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The following article was found in the Houston Chronicle today:
KALAMAZOO, Mich. — Western Michigan University student William K. Bradley has been sentenced for larceny in a building.
He stole a computer.
From the Kalamazoo County jail.
Where he already was serving a sentence in a different case.
Kalamazoo County Circuit Judge Gary Giguere Jr. sentenced Bradley on Monday, telling the Kalamazoo resident his jailhouse theft was “the dumbest crime I’ve heard today” and “may be in the top half-dozen in my career.”
Bradley, who has racked up six felonies and four misdemeanors by the age of 25, agreed with the judge, saying, “I’m not the best criminal.”
Bradley asked for home arrest, but Giguere instead ordered him back to jail for six months.
Western spokeswoman Cheryl Roland tells the Kalamazoo Gazette Bradley is a sophomore at the university.
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