Category Archives: Orwellian Threats to Rights
Client Communications With Criminal Defense Lawyers – Keeping Your Lawyer and Client Communications Safe From Eavesdroppers and Hackers
This week, the director of the National Security Agency responded to the demand letter sent by the American Bar Association (see details on the ABA letter including its full text here) and what Director General Keith Alexander had in reply shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone: the NSA has told the ABA not to worry,…
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,…
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…
New Texas Court Case May Allow Police to Search Your Home Without a Search Warrant or Your Okay
On television, the police cannot come into your home without (1) a warrant or (2) your approval and consent — unless they’ve got a really, really good reason (like they can see someone on the living room floor unconscious by looking through the no-curtained window). Perhaps you learned in class while in high school or…
Prosecutorial Misconduct Rules Issued by Texas Supreme Court: Where is Michael Morton’s Prosecutor, Ken Anderson, Now?
Prosecutors do bad things all the time here in Texas; if you doubt this, just read a few of the stories we’ve posted about regarding abusive and illegal actions by District Attorneys here in the Lone Star State. These state prosecutors do all sorts of illegal acts, from hiding evidence and introducing false evidence in…
Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Do Not Trust Prosecutor’s Crime Lab Forensic Evidence, When Will Public Become Aware that Crime Lab Results Aren’t Like TV Forensics?
Forensic evidence seems so darn scientific and reliable when you watch TV. Unfortunately, things are NOT the same in the real world as they are on television shows and we’ve been monitoring how bad Texas Crime Labs can be in processing evidence to be used in criminal trials for a long while now. (See, for…
Texas Stop and Frisk: The New York City Stop and Frisk Law Just Held Unconstitutional – Texas Law Is Not Involved Here
There’s a lot of chatter this month about “stop and frisk laws” and the recent ruling by U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin who presides over a federal trial court up in the heart of New York City. In a lengthy (195 pages) decision (read it here), the Manhattan federal judge ruled that it violates the…
Police and Your Phone: The Justice Department Pushes Supreme Court To Okay Police Searching Your Phone Without a Search Warrant. Will Your Smartphone Be Private Anymore?
We’ve posted about police in Texas circumventing search warrants to get cell phone tower information by getting special court orders from Texas judges and how many are concerned that this is a constitutional violation of our rights to privacy. (The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which presides over Texas in federal appellate matters, has ruled…
Salinas v Texas: Your Silence During Police Interrogation Does Not Get 5th Amendment Protection, Can Be Used Against You as Evidence of Guilt to the Jury
Well, prosecutors and police officers are happy today, because the United States Supreme Court just came down their way in the case of Salinas v. Texas (more about that pending case here). It’s not too far off to imagine that interrogation training is already being revised in Dallas and across the State of Texas…
