Category Archives: Evidence

PRE-ARREST CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS

Pre-Arrest Texas Criminal Investigations: Police Investigations, Federal Investigations before Arrest As a Texas Board Certified Criminal Lawyer, I have experienced first-hand the lengths to which criminal investigators, law enforcement agencies, and police officers can go to try and find enough documents, paperwork, and witness statements to attempt and put together enough evidence to arrest or…


TEXAS DWI DEFENSES TO B.A.C. BLOOD TEST RESULTS (MAY WORK FOR OTHER STATE DRUNK DRIVING DEFENSES, TOO)

Criminal defense challenges to BAC blood test results in Drunk Driving prosecutions If you have been arrested or charged with driving while intoxicated (DWI) in the State of Texas, and your blood test result comes back at 0.08 g/dL or higher blood alcohol content (”BAC”) , then what’s left for your defense? Once you’ve had…


TOP 10 DEFENSE MISTAKES IN FEDERAL CONSPIRACY CASES AND HOW TO AVOID THEM

Tips on Defending Against Federal Conspiracy Charges by an Experienced Criminal Defense Lawyer As a Texas Board Certified Criminal Lawyer, I have practiced criminal law exclusively for over twenty years in the State of Texas, where federal prosecutions are almost as commonplace as state and local charges. For example, 2 of the top 5 federal…


Seal Broken by Judge Today and Now We Know How The Police Are Eavesdropping on Public With Stingray Devices

For a long while, criminal defense lawyers along with civil rights activists as well as citizens who have been arrested by law enforcement in Police Departments all over the country have known that police have been using new technology to eavesdrop on phone calls and text messages. That’s not news. It’s been a real big…


Navarette v. California: Supreme Court Okays Anonymous Tip for Traffic Stop — We’ve All Lost Something Today

Back in January, we warned about what happened today: the United States Supreme Court has okayed police pulling people over to search their vehicles based upon an anonymous tip in the case of Navarette v. California. In February, we were still reeling from the SCOTUS decision in Fernandez, where they found it legally permissible and…


Philip Seymour Hoffman Heroin Dealers and the United States Supreme Court: Recent Opinion Makes It Harder to Convict Drug Dealers for Heroin Death Under Federal Law

Philip Seymour Hoffman drug dealers rejoice! The United States Supreme Court has released a new decision that defines a new standard for “causation” in a heroin death case. The High Court interprets the “resulted in the death” language of 21 U.S.C. 841 (the “Controlled Substances Act”) to really mean that it’s a “but for” cause…


THE CRUEL REALITY OF CRIMINAL EVIDENCE: IT’S JUST NOT THAT RELIABLE

EVIDENCE IN CRIMINAL CASES CANNOT BE BLINDLY TRUSTED: TEXAS CRIMINAL EVIDENCE ISN’T LIKE IT IS ON TV On television, an amazing number of cop shows succeed in drawing large audiences: series and spin-offs where handsome men and beautiful women work hard in scientific labs to produce iron-clad evidence that convicts the bad guy. They rival…


U.S. Supreme Court Will Make Big Decisions on Your Privacy Rights from Police this Year: the Boundaries of Law Enforcement Intrusion

Yesterday’s State of the Union address is still the talk of many today, with many discussing the extent of the executive branch’s power and exactly what “checks and balances” means. However, for many criminal defense practitioners there’s more to be considered in 2014 than what the President or Congress may be doing up in Washington,…


Dallas Cowboy Josh Brent DWI Intoxication Manslaughter Trial Provides Lessons in Police Drunk Driving Blood Testing and Privacy Rights

This week, lots of people are following a trial here in Dallas as the intoxication manslaughter criminal trial of recently retired Dallas Cowboy Josh Brent got underway this week. For those of you who don’t know what’s going on here, pro football player Josh Brent and his best friend Jerry Brown, Jr., were in a…


Junk Science Causing Wrongful Convictions in Texas: Will New 2013 Habeas Corpus Law Help Those Wrongfully Convicted in Texas?

This Friday, the Texas Forensic Science Commission is meeting down in Austin, and one the big topics that will be on the table there will be  the big, big problem of “junk science” being used by Texas prosecutors to get convictions against people – wrongful convictions.  The TFSC has also issued its 200+ page 2013…