justice – Page 3

Free from Tyranny

July 4, 2015 1 Comment

11713762_10207087343963333_5644811668517364144_o On July 2, 2015 members of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association again assembled on the courthouse steps for our annual reading of the Declaration of Independence. Began in 2010 by Robert Fickman, this was our 6th Annual Reading.
Always moving and inspiring, this year we were fortunate to have the added joy of hearing two World War II Veterans, Virgil Poe and Joseph Varela Sr., read with us.

We would like to thank all those in attendance as well as those who participated in the reading.

Readings by:
Virgil Poe, JoAnne Musick, Todd Dupont, Chris Tritico, Paul Schiffer, John Raley, Evan Myers, Carmen Roe, Damon Parrish II, Jason Sosa, Robert Fickman, Joseph Varela Sr. (assisted by his son Joe Varela Jr.), Grant Scheiner, Alex Bunin, Danny Easterling, Justin Harris, Ernesst Bo Hopman, Vivienne Schiffer, Mark Metzger, Drew Prisner, Gemayel Haynes, Sarah Wood, Mike Trent, Paul Kennedy, Robert Pelton, Vivian King, Wade Smith, Paul St. John, Jackie Carpenter, Thuy Le, Alejandro Macias, Philip Gommels, Tristan Legrande, Mary Moore, J. Julio Vela, Mark Bennett, Earl Musick, and Nicolas Hughes.

Special thanks to these judges who attended:
Brad Hart, Jay Karahan, Susan Brown, Kristin Guiney, Robin Brown, Brett Busby, Marc Brown, Brock Thomas, Denise Bradley, Mike Fields, Paula Goodhart, Mary Lou Keel, and Michael Schneider.

Very special thanks to those behind the scenes that make it all happen:
Christina Appelt, Joel Avendano, and Bob Rosenberg (official HCCLA photographer).

Our photos can be found via Bob Rosenberg’s Facebook (public posting) here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

We are proud to have started this tradition and watch it grow across the State of Texas. Joined by TCDLA, Robert Fickman has grown this event to cover more than one-half of Texas Counties. A recap can be found here: http://www.criminaldefensedeclarationreading.com/

Some of our members have blogged their personal experiences:

JoAnne Musick, HCCLA President

Philip Gommels, Board Member

You can view the video of our reading here: https://youtu.be/3Bm55f-FQnI

And lastly, KTRH added a little insight into the practice!

PR: Declaration of Independence

July 1, 2015 Leave a Comment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
JoAnne Musick, HCCLA President
832-448-1148 office, email JoAnne

6th ANNUAL READING OF THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE
Houston, Texas – June 29, 2015

In celebration of Independence Day, the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association (HCCLA) is holding its 6th annual reading of the Declaration of Independence. This year’s event will be led by JoAnne Musick, the association’s president.

HCCLA’s reading of the Declaration is an annual tradition that was started by HCCLA Past President, Robert Fickman. This year he organized similar readings across the state, making defense bar history. Readings by defense lawyers will take place in front of 127 Texas courthouses, covering one-half of all county seats. HCCLA continues to lead Texas with the largest gathering, boasting over 100 local attorneys, judges and Houstonians in attendance.

The Declaration of Independence is our nation’s most cherished symbol of liberty. This sacred document is the founding document of the United States, and contains within its text the fundamental truths and unalienable rights that typify and embody the American way of life: …that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Please join us in honoring our nation’s most sacred document in the spirit of independence:
When: Thursday, July 2, 2014
Where: Harris County Criminal Justice Center
1201 Franklin Street , Houston, Texas
(Front steps of the courthouse)
Time: 11:30 AM

The Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association is the largest local criminal defense bar in the United States with more than 750 active members. For more information about the history of the readings and photos, visit: http://www.criminaldefensedeclarationreading.com/
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download here:

Download (PDF, 53KB)

Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association also issued their press release as this event has grown into a statewide event:

PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Joseph Martinez, Executive Director : TCDLA
TELEPHONE: (512) 478-2514
PLEASE SEND ELECTRONIC TEARSHEET TO: declarationreading@gmail.com

Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers to Lead Readings of Declaration of Independence in over 120 Texas Counties on July 2, 2015.

Members of the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association (TCDLA) are holding Annual Fourth of July readings of the Declaration of Independence at over 120 Texas County Courthouses on July 2, 2015. TCDLA is an organization committed to protecting individual rights guaranteed by the U.S. and Texas Constitutions in criminal cases. The readings were first organized in 2010 by Robert Fickman, a Houston criminal defense attorney, who leads the organization of readings today as well.

Sam Bassett, the President of TCDLA, states: “Criminal defense lawyers fight to protect the liberties of our fellow Americans on a daily basis in courts across Texas. As a group, we are proud to stand united and lead readings of the Declaration of Independence. It is a recognition that our Founders intended for individual liberty to be a paramount concern. As recent events have shown, power threatens these liberties. Prosecutors who illegally withhold evidence, courts that conduct plea mills, abusive police officers and appellate courts who gut the Fourth Amendment are examples of the ongoing struggle within the criminal justice system.”

The members of TCDLA stand united in defense of liberty.

To learn more about this event, please contact TCDLA President Sam Bassett at (512) 472-0144 or sbassett@mbfc.com or Robb Fickman at (713) 655-7400

Time for Case Limits in Harris County?

June 14, 2015 Leave a Comment

In a recently discovered memorandum, a case is made for case limits in criminal cases, especially those handled in indigent cases by appointed lawyers.

House Bill (HB) 1318, passed by the 83rd Texas Legislature, instructed the Texas Indigent Defense Commission (TIDC) to “conduct and publish a study for the purpose of determining guidelines for establishing a maximum allowable caseload for a criminal defense attorney that…allows the attorney to give each indigent defendant the time and effort necessary to ensure effective representation.” That study is now complete and available on the TIDC website where it can be downloaded as well.

Both national and state organizations make clear that attorneys can effectively handle only so many cases a year. Yet, in Harris County, the claim is that a small percentage of attorneys handle an extraordinarily large caseload of appointed criminal cases while reporting that caseload is only 40-65% of their practice.

According to the memo, there is no evidence that the disproportionate appointment system is based upon merit. Few of the attorneys with highest appointed caseloads ever go to trial. Yet they are the highest paid appointed attorneys in the system. The number of cases appointed by lawyer, by type, or by court can be viewed on the TIDC website here: http://tidc.tamu.edu/public.net/Reports/AttorneyCaseLoad.aspx.

The memo also explains a study undertaken to examine the work done by appointed counsel across the state which was then compared to work in Harris County. The study utilized 196 attorneys (private attorneys and public defenders) over a 12 week period. They logged their work and tasks into a computer program, resulting in a sample of the amount of time lawyers spend on their cases. Their numbers were sent to 319 attorneys to review and adjust based upon how much time they should spend on cases. Finally a panel of 18 senior criminal defense lawyers reviewed those results and again adjusted to reflect time that is generally required for cases. From those numbers, caseload standards were set based on the time available in the year and the time required for particular cases.

The results were that several Harris County indigent lawyers kept caseloads much greater than the Texas standard and the national standard. In short, the actual results in Harris County were the most egregious violations of the caseload maximums across the state. One attorney closed 969 cases (441 felonies and 528 misdemeanors) in one year! The highest caseload standard was 236 class B misdemeanors that could effectively be handled by one attorney in a one year period. This particular attorney (licensed approximately 7 years) threw in an extra 292 misdemeanors AND 441 felonies, which comprised only 65% of her total practice. That’s a huge caseload and tops the charts for Harris County. Another 23 attorneys top out at over 300 adult felonies per year. Of those 23, 6 had 400 or more and 2 had 553, which is apparently the cut-off for being paid. So 24 lawyers far exceed the caseload standards for indigent defense. Many others exceed the standards, though by not as great a margin.

The memo’s conclusion: The answer to improving private assigned counsel in Harris County is twofold: (1) establish reasonable caseload maximums, and (2) encourage a culture of investigating and researching cases.

The full memo can be viewed and downloaded here

Download (PDF, 54KB)

This is an issue that Robert Fickman, a local criminal defense lawyer and Past President of HCCLA, has flagged for years. Data in the past has been based on the amounts paid to local appointed lawyers. This data was limited due to the fact that it came from the auditor’s office without specific detail. Now, with TIDC collecting specific data and attorneys self-reporting their practice percentages, the data paints a broader picture of the injustice in attorneys handling too many cases. They simply do not have enough hours in the day (or year) to properly investigate and prepare defenses and challenge the state’s evidence with these extreme caseloads. One of his recent blogposts on the topic can be found here http://blog.fickmanlaw.com/2015/06/harris-county-where-the-accused-are-treated-like-cattle/.

Prosecutorial Discipline

June 12, 2015 Leave a Comment

Is the bar finally getting more serious with prosecutorial misconduct? Just as we sent our letter to Hon. Devon Anderson (Harris County District Attorney) regarding potential prosecutorial overreaching, media accounts of Charles Sebesta’s disbarment blew up.

Texas Monthly reports that Sebesta was found to have violated no less than 5 tenants of the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct, including:

3.03(a)(l ): “A lawyer shall not knowingly make a false statement of material fact or law to a tribunal.”

3.03(a)(5): “A lawyer shall not knowingly offer or use evidence that the lawyer knows to be false.”

3.09(d): “A prosecutor in a criminal case shall make timely disclosure to the defense of all evidence or information known to the prosecutor that tends to negate the guilt of the accused or mitigates the offense…”

8.04(a)(l): “A lawyer shall not violate these rules, knowingly assist or induce another to do so, or do so through the acts of another…”

8.04(a)(3): “A lawyer shall not engage in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation.

Charles Sebesta, the District Attorney who prosecuted Anthony Graves, was found to have withheld exculpatory evidence and to have presented false testimony in his effort to convict Anthony and send him to death row. Anthony Graves was ultimately exonerated after spending 18 years on death row, most of which was in solitary confinement.

Coincidentally, HCCLA sent a letter today to Devon Anderson asking her to investigate whether Assistant District Attorney Dan Rizzo committed criminal offenses or disciplinary violations in his role to prosecute Alfred Brown – where it was discovered that favorable evidence was not disclosed and Brown’s alibi witness was badgered by the grand jury until she changed her testimony and withdrew the alibi.

It is time for prosecutors to be held accountable for intentional violations of the law and disciplinary rules. It’s a new age. Change is here.

Download the opinion on lawyer discipline for Charles Sebesta here

Download (PDF, 184KB)

Alfred Brown Unresolved Matters

June 12, 2015 Leave a Comment

In a letter to Hon. Devon Anderson, Harris County District Attorney, HCCLA calls for action on unresolved matters related to the Alfred Brown prosecution.

As you may be aware, our District Attorney has announced the dismissal of charges against Alfred Brown as being unable to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. This dismissal comes after the discovery of exculpatory evidence (tending to corroborate Brown’s alibi), the exposure of improper grand jury badgering of Brown’s alibi witness (Ericka Dockery), and recanting witnesses.

In case you missed it, Lisa Falkenberg (Houston Chronicle) was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of this grand jury behavior. Her spotlight on this issue also led to grand jury reform in this year’s legislative session! (Read some more about grand jury reform and the District Attorney’s Office here)

We now call upon the Office of District Attorney to continue the inquiry into the conduct surrounding the initial investigation and prosecution of Alfred Brown and the prosecution of Ericka Dockery, specifically focusing upon potential criminal offenses and unethical conduct by Brown’s lead prosecutor, Dan Rizzo.

Our letter to Devon Anderson can be viewed and downloaded here:

Download (PDF, 2.56MB)

Police: The New Gang in Town

June 9, 2015 Leave a Comment

A recent Texas Monthly article, Police Violence — The More Things Stay the Same, parallels the 1977 Texas Monthly cover and its companion article to today’s police brutality, both in Texas and beyond.

The 1977 cover and article depicted Houston Police as a biker gang, the new gang. On the heels of the Joe Campos Torres, Jr. murder, then Houston Mayor Fred Hofheinz, obviously anguished, said: “There is something loose in this city that is an illness.” His sentiments were echoed by famed criminal defense attorney Percy Foreman who called Houston a “police state.” Percy continued, “The Houston Police Department is worse, and its officers more violent and unchecked, than any comparable police force in the country.”

A little history as an aside: Torres, a 23-year old Vietnam Veteran, was arrested in May 1977 for disorderly conduct at an east-side Houston bar. The six responding officers took Torres to a place called “the hole” near Buffalo Bayou and severely beat him. When the officers presented Torres to the jail for booking, jail personnel ordered Torres taken to the hospital. Instead, the officers returned to the bayou and tossed Torres into the water with his hands still cuffed. Days later, Torres’ body was discovered in the water.

The two officers who were tried in state court on murder charges were convicted of negligent homicide and given one-year probation and a $1 fine. Later officers were tried in federal court and were convicted and served 9 months in prison.

The outrage over the officers’ action and their punishments led to riots and protests.

These 1970’s accounts of police violence parallel today’s accounts: a policeman in McKinney, Texas drawing his service weapon on a group of African-American teenagers in swimsuits; a Harris County prosecutor using a grand jury to browbeat an alibi witness; the officer shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri; and the police shooting of mentally ill Kajieme Powell in St. Louis.

Of particular interest to us in Harris County, Percy Foreman blamed the 1970’s police violence on Harris County prosecutors who have “’white-washed every charge against policemen,’ thus encouraging even more police violence by letting police know that they are free from the sanctions of the law.” It’s telling that Percy’s take on violence then is echoed by Harris County defenders still today and the remarkable rate at which Harris County grand juries wash charges against policemen.

Anyway, the article is worth the read as it goes on to analyze the military-styled police state and their training, particularly that since 9/11 police have been trained to OCCUPY rather than PROTECT.

Letter to Editor: Texas Lawyer

June 4, 2015 4 Comments

HCCLA submitted the following letter to the editor today after consideration of their “article” on a rehabilitated John Bradley:

Texas Lawyer (via electronic submission)
To the Editors:

Regarding your recent editorial on the changed nature of John Bradley, the members of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association (“HCCLA”) suggest that you consider his most recent actions before attesting to his rehabilitation.

A prosecutor’s duty is to do justice, not to advance inhumane conditions and block favorable evidence. A quick look at Mr. Bradley’s past and current actions reveals a convict-at-any-cost mentality rather than the pursuit of what is just and right.

Michael Morton, an innocent man, languished in jail for several years while Mr. Bradley fought every attempt to have exculpatory evidence tested. Mr. Bradley mocked Mr. Morton and his lawyers for their mere suggestion of innocence. Your own publication addressed Mr. Bradley’s abuses related to the Michael Morton case.

We were denied review of the conviction of Cameron Todd Willingham, possibly an innocent victim of the system, by Mr. Bradley’s appointment to the Forensic Science Commission, where his role seemed to have been to immediately and irreparably limit the scope of the Commission’s work. On the cusp of investigating that conviction (based upon illegitimate science and recanting witnesses) Mr. Bradley promptly closed down the investigation and threw the Commission into months of inactivity.

Realizing that your publication is about the changes in John Bradley since he left Williamson County, we ask whether you investigated his current employment. As the lead prosecutor in Palau, Mr. Bradley continues to argue for the harshest punishments possible and defends the inhumane conditions found in Palau’s prisons. In a very recent Writ of Habeas Corpus proceeding, Mr. Bradley argued that the defendant’s claim of solitary confinement under inhumane conditions was frivolous. As the judge attempted to schedule a jail visit for his own benefit, Mr. Bradley argued against attending such a visit, claiming that it would be a waste of [edit] his time and resources. Following the visit, the judge expressed the horror of his discovery in a scathing opinion, repudiating Mr. Bradley’s claims, citing everything from UN Resolutions to Gospels to Thomas Jefferson. (note 1)

We urge you, instead of writing puff pieces without investigating their veracity, to investigate instances of prosecutorial and professional misconduct and a means to address those wrongs. As lawyers, we owe it to the public to make sure that the public servants intended to protect them are following the law.

Sincerely,
JoAnne Musick
President
Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association
joanne@musicklawoffice.com
832-448-1148

Download (PDF, 891KB)

HCCLA’s above letter was submitted in response to this Texas Lawyer article.

HCCJCC MacArthur Grant

June 3, 2015 Leave a Comment

At today’s HCCJCC (Harris County Criminal Justice Coordinating Council) meeting, Harris County’s grant award was discussed. The County applied for and received one of 20 grant awards (from approximately 200 applicants across the nation) for the MacArthur Safety + Justice Challenge. The County was awarded $150,000 to create a plan to improve public safety while reducing the overuse of local jails. The goal in this “challenge” is to find ways to REDUCE jail population. The grant funds are used to study the problem and come up with a plan (within 6 months) for implementation. The 20 current award winners will compete to have their plan selected for another grant of up to $2 million to be used toward implementation.

The goals of the challenge related to receiving the grants are:

Reduce the number of people coming INTO the local jail
Reduce the amount of time people STAY in the local jail
Reduce the ethnic disparity in the jail population.

As stated during the meeting, the MacArthur Foundation has identified a significant problem: crime rates across the nation have decreased significantly over the the past many years yet our local jail populations continue to rise disproportionately. The challenge looks at only local jail populations and not prisons. It was stated that across the nation 2/3 of those in local jails are “pending trial” so they have not been convicted of anything yet they are incarcerated. For Harris County, they quoted a 74% jail population of those “pending trial.” Thus, we are higher than the national average at pre-trial incarceration rates. The speaker noted that African American’s are 6 times more likely to be incarcerated pending trial, and the mentally ill are 4-6 times more likely to be incarcerated.

A complete study entitled “Incarceration’s Front Door: Misuse of Jails in America” can be viewed/downloaded here:

http://www.safetyandjusticechallenge.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/incarcerations-front-door-report.pdf

More information on the Challenge can be found here:

http://www.safetyandjusticechallenge.org/