Sunday, May 14, 2023

I'll Take "Things That Aren't Any of the Prosecutor's Damn Business" for $1,000, Alex.

There were a couple of interesting things of note in this article about the Darius Lewis case by Nicole Hensley in yesterday's Chronicle that I thought were worth mentioning . . .



Spoiler Alert:  it isn't really up to the prosecutor to decide whether or not a client is indigent enough to qualify for appointed counsel unless he or she is doubling as the judge or county auditor.  

Also, when did prosecutors start sharing juvenile criminal history?







13 comments:

Anonymous said...

The state is a party to the action, and has a right to an opinion. As I recall, you did not have a problem voicing your opinion when you were an ADA.

Anonymous said...

“I’ll take everyone gets a free lawyer(read that as Harris County Public Defender)Alex! “ The private criminal defense bar is a dying breed.

Murray Newman said...

Anon 2:30 p.m.,
The State is a party to an action but they don't get a say in whether or not a person qualifies for an attorney. I hate to break it to you but there are a lot of ex parte things that happen on criminal cases that they don't get to weigh in on, either. As a prosecutor, I never questioned whether or not a client was "indigent enough" for a court-appointed attorney. It's a stupid move. #1 - it ain't the prosecutor's money; and #2 - since when has depriving an accused of a guaranteed right to counsel turned out well for the government in the long run?

Anon 4:06 p.m.,
Interesting take. Care to elaborate? I get that the potential expansion of the Public Defenders Office may change the way things are done to some degree, but I'm not as sure that it will be as far-reaching as you seem to believe.

Anonymous said...

Murray at this point you’re drinking the kool aid if the prosecutor pays taxes it is his money he is spending. I also saw the comments you made about the level of convictions the DA has secured. Yet if we pushed cases tot rial and got convictions you would be screaming about how the DA is not reform minded. Which one is it? Is she tough on crime like a republican?

I get it she’s not perfect and I’m not defending her but you have her in a catch 22 she’s never liberal enough for you but then you say she’s a horrible manager which is why we don’t get convictions. At this point I think nothing she does would ever get praise from you.

Second of all back when the county got sued Alex Bunin released a massive amount of juvenile history and never asked the sitting judge permission. I don’t remember you writing an article about how that was wrong. Remember he was grilled by the Harris county commissioners court over this. Lastly a prosecutor is allowed to tell the court about juvenile history when determining bond.

Murray Newman said...

Ok, I’ll concede the juvenile history issue for bond purposes but you are crazy about thinking it is the State’s right to argue against a defendant getting an attorney because they aren’t indigent enough. The prosecutor isn’t up there as an individual. He or she is up there to represent the State of Texas. Does the defense attorney get to argue that the prosecutor’s salary is too high? Give me a break.

As far as not acknowledging any positives coming from Kim, that’s not true. The entirety of my interview was not aired but I told Joel that the dismissal rates on prostitution cases were probably a result of a diversion program and that I considered that a positive. I also felt that Beedle’s comments in that news story were taken out of context when it aired at five. I think they corrected it by the six o’clock. Try not to forget that we started out this adventure with me supporting Kim and I tried to remain positive about her even after she immediately fired forty of my friends. If she were to do something positive, I’d point that out but the sad reality is that she hasn’t done anything new or innovative since her first year in office.

Anonymous said...

Anon 7:13 p.m.,
once you pay your taxes, the money is no longer yours and you have no special right to direct where it is used. It was a bad move and we all know it so there's no sense in doubling down using a terrible argument.

Anonymous said...

Murray that’s fair when it comes to the indigent representation. It does feel weird when some judges give them an attorney but the affidavit says they have a decent amount of money. Have the rules become relaxed absolutely. I will give you it’s not the prosecutors job to argue against the appointment of an attorney.

I will point out it is the Chronicle who argues against how much you guys make. Almost every person that was mentioned in that article are considered excellent defense attorneys. I personally do not like the plan to expand the PDOs office to 50% of cases

Anonymous said...

Anon 4:06 here.

I work in almost all of the 23 courts. I cannot tell you the last time I saw a sitting judge tell an accused that his or her case was going to be reset to hire an attorney. Certainly not in 2023.

I know for a fact that in some courts the PD's office essentially appoints themselves to represent accused.

Now we hear that team Alex wants to get into Capital representation.

Like I said, The private criminal defense bar is a dying breed.

Lee said...

Why does the cost of an attorney come out of the pocket of the innocent as opposed to the system that made the accusation against the innocent? The cost of those damn lawyers could easily bankrupt the innocent.

Remind me the problem of paying lawyers minimum wage? I keep forgetting.

Anonymous said...

The PD’S office essentially appoints itself on cases. I don’t understand how they have case caps. The whole point of a public defenders office is that they take all indigent cases. Yet the whine about wanting more money but then brag about having a case or two on the docket a day

Anonymous said...

If it's not the prosecutor's job to point out factual inaccuracies in an affidavit made by a criminal defendant, whose is it? I assume that it's a crime of some kind to lie on financial forms sworn to in connection with a judicial proceeding. If it's not the prosecutor's job to evaluate whether someone committed perjury or not, I don't know what his job is? Maybe prosecutors should just focus on promoting anal marriage.

The message to cops today is that they must handle criminals of color with kid gloves. If the cops were not too afraid of getting railroaded by DAs funded by Soros and other members of God's chosen tribe, you defense attorneys wouldn't be bitching about the lack of work - quite the contrary. Plenty of our equals are all around committing enough crime to keep everyone occupied til Jesus comes again. We just lack the will and courage to call a spade a spade.

For what it's worth, the historical meaning of our suspended constitution's 6th amendment only allowed for a person to have the right to hire an attorney at their own expense, and this provision didn't even apply to the states. So we're many degrees away from legitimacy at this point. Enjoy living in a vibrant, diverse community.

Murray Newman said...

Wow. Homophobia. Racism. Your comment is amazing. Bad day at the Klan rally?

Anonymous said...

All of the above.

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