Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center

Richard "Racehorse" Haynes passed away this morning.  In today's world, the term "Legend" is thrown around a little too often for my taste, but it was a term that couldn't be more appropriate in describing Mr. Haynes.    For anyone who has had even a passing interest in Texas Criminal Law over the past sixty years, his name was synonymous with, quite simply, being regarded as the Greatest Criminal Defense Attorney. Period. Basketball had Michael Jordan.  Texas Law had Racehorse Haynes. When I was in Junior High up in Bryan, a friend of mine's father died, and his wealthy family ended up in a huge legal battle over his estate.  When my friend's mother hired Racehorse Haynes, it was the talk of the town.  You would have thought that Abraham Lincoln was coming to argue a case.  If I recall correctly, the case settled relatively quickly after Mr. Haynes' signing onto the case. It wasn't until much later that it occurred to me that Mr.

SCENE:  The Death Star orbits over Downtown Houston.  [Interior]  A galactic conference room for a Tuesday Show & Tell Meeting.  EMPRESS OGG sits at the head of the table, as the rest of her Imperial Officers sit to the sides. EMPRESS OGG:  Tell me, Vice Admiral Berg, where do we stand on our budget? VICE ADMIRAL BERG:  Well, Empress, after farming out the Goforth case, we took another big hit on the budget.  With that and the Irsan case in Planet 184, we've had to outsource two death capitals.  There's a possibility that the tab on the two cases could reach well over a million dollars. EMPRESS OGG:  A million?!  Mother of Yoda!! VICE ADMIRAL BERG:  Yes, the numbers are concerning.  We may need to downsize your Imperial Guard. EMPRESS OGG:  By how many? VICE ADMIRAL BERG:  Well, um, like all of them? EMPRESS OGG:  Unacceptable.  There must be another option. CORPORAL LEITNER:  We could stop recusing ourselves off of death capital cases. EMPRESS OGG:  That

The Houston Chronicle  had a "breaking story" today that the Harris County District Attorney's Office under Kim Ogg was recusing itself from the ultra-high publicity capital murder trial of Shannon Miles  for the murder of Harris County Sheriff's Deputy Darren Goforth.  Although the story may have been "breaking" news to the intrepid reporters of the Chronicle , the recusal was old news around the CJC and had been mentioned a couple of times here on the blog (in the comments). The reason for the recusal was because Chief of Staff, Vivian King, had previously represented one or more witnesses involved in the case, including Miles' mother. That's a relatively removed relationship to the case for Ogg to pull the plug, especially in comparison to her steadfast refusal to recuse the Office from the David Temple case .  The logic to recuse the Office from a case because a staff member represented a potential witness  on the case versus not  recusing th

Like most of you, I was completely dumbfounded to learn about the murder of Clint Greenwood this morning. Although he and I were not friends, my heart and my sympathy goes out to his family, friends and co-workers.  His death was an act of extreme cowardice and I pray for swift justice for all of those who had anything to do with causing it. In better days, I always thought Clint was hysterical and wildly entertaining.  He had a larger-than-life personality and was very loved by very many at the CJC.  He leaves an enduring legacy there and he will be remembered.