Category Archives: Orwellian Threats to Rights
For Decades, Feds (DOJ, FBI) Knew Forensic Evidence Was Unreliable But Said Nothing to Defense: How Many Innocents Behind Bars, How Many Have Been Wrongfully Executed?
This week, a Washington Post investigation is spreading like wildfire over the web and it’s getting lots of people talking. People like Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins, who was on television this week here in Dallas to answer some questions about what the Post has revealed (watch him on video here). You can read the…
Texas Police Corruption: Texas Rangers Arrest Chief of Police, Rest of Police Department Out the Door But Covington Still Very Afraid
A stone’s throw as the crow flies from Fort Worth is the tiny Texas town of Covington, and if you follow along Interstate 35 from downtown CowTown you’ll be in the heart of Covington in around 45 minutes. So, this story isn’t coming out of some backwoods, rural spot that’s living without the knowledge or…
Texas’ “No Refusal” DWI Campaign In National Spotlight As People Start to Realize It’s Violating Constitutional Civil Rights
Texas criminal defense attorneys hopefully will find a benefit from the growing national media attention to the state’s No Refusal campaigns that attempt to target drunk driving dangers but in doing so, endanger basic civil rights – something that every American should know. When rights are taken from you, there’s usually no advance invitation sent…
Texas Prosecutors Come Under Increased Scrunity in Texas: Hank Skinner Stay Within Weeks of Michael Morton Release
Hank Skinner is still alive today thanks to a last minute stay granted by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals – and it’s still open for debate whether or not his requests will be granted for DNA evidence to be tested. (For details on Hank Skinner’s case, check out our earlier posts here and here.)…
Texas Driver Responsibility Surcharge Nightmare: DPS Isn’t Following the New Law
Effective September 1, 2011, a new law went into effect here in Texas designed to help lots of folk convicted of a moving traffic violation, by changing the old law that required everyone who got a traffic ticket (including DWI) to pay a Driver Responsibility surcharge. For details, check out our post back in August…
Ex El Paso Medical Examiner’s Doctored Resume Gets Him Fired But Texas Medical Board Rules Dr. Paul Shrode Was Qualified For the Job
Dr. Paul Shrode was the Chief Medical Examiner for El Paso for five years, until he was fired in 2010 after a controversy arose about his background and whether or not the errors on his resume (discovered and reported by the local ABC television channel, ABC-7) meant that Dr. Shrode did not have the proper…
Who Will Bring Texas Prosecutor James Elliott to Justice In the Delma Banks Case? He’s Retrying a 30 Yr Old Death Penalty Case Despite US Supreme Ct Rebuke
In 2004, Texas Death Row inmate Delma Banks’ case came before the United States Supreme Court, where the Highest Court in the Land found that prosecutors had done very bad things — they had suppressed evidence, they had hidden their own mistakes, etc. — and because of this, Banks’ case was overturned. Read the U.S….
Texas Police Are Tracking Your Every Move – Right Now – Through Automatic License Plate Readers Databases: Anyone Bother to Get Your Okay?
Automatic License Plate Readers, also known as License Plate Recognition Devices, have creeped into the daily routines of police departments across the State of Texas and elsewhere under the guise of cutting edge law enforcment technology used to capture criminals. What the American public and the Texas citizenry are not being told is that it’s…
Thanksgiving 2010: Get Ready, Texas, for Another No Refusal DWI Holiday
Law enforcement loves No Refusal weekends – counties all over the Lone Star State are now routinely blanketing holiday weekends with No Refusal efforts with notice to the public popping up in press releases issued as late as 24 hours before the holiday begins. You remember No Refusal weekends: those are the set time periods…
Can We Trust Texas Crime Labs? NO.
Many, many, many criminal defense attorneys in the State of Texas cast a wary eye at any test results coming out of crime labs in this state, because all too often, state forensic evidence has shown itself to be faulty. Unlike the CSI shows on TV, all sorts of crazy stuff appears to happen in…
