Dallas Criminal Lawyer – David Finn

Officers’ failure to issue Miranda warnings prior to interrogation and polygraph exam resulted in reversal of murder conviction, despite officers’ subsequent attempts to cure said screwup by issuing after-the-fact Miranda warnings and redoing the interrogation process
Martinez v. State, 272 S.W.3d 615 (Tex. Crim. App. Dec 17, 2008)

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A mystery illness, an unexplained death and no follow-up investigation is all part of a case involving an inmate in the Henderson County Jail in Athens, which is located southeast of Dallas. After all that, word has arisen that the Henderson County sheriff, Ronny Brownlow, is suddenly retiring.
See the video here

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11:14 PM CDT on Monday, July 21, 2008
 
By KEVIN KRAUSE / The Dallas Morning News
kkrause@dallasnews.com
 
While Dallas County jails have made significant progress in the last three years, inmates with health problems and mental illness still aren’t getting adequate care fast enough, a team of inspectors has reported.

Also Online

Document: Jail Report

The five-person team visited the jails [...]

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In Virginia v. Moore, case number 06-1082, the Supreme Court today decided that just because police officers violate state law by arresting a person for an offense that is not subject to arrest, a search incident to that
(unlawful) arrest does not violate the Fourth Amendment. And it was a unanimous decision (Justice Ginsburg only concurred in the judgment).

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David Finn: In addition to the individuals named in the following article, credit for the distribution of this material goes to Tony Lacy, Assistant Public Defender, Western District of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
It’s old, so check the Federal Code before relying on the information.
A giant “Thank You� goes out to Sherri Katz, Research and [...]

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CRIMINAL PRACTICE IN TEXAS
STATE AND U.S. DISTRICT COURTS – A COMPARISON

by: George R. Milner, III
Milner & Finn
Dallas, Texas
www.milnerfinn.com
I. INTRODUCTION
Most attorneys will begin their careers practicing in either state or federal court, but rarely both.

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UPDATES TO
by John Teakell
Milner & Finn
Dallas, TX
Federal Bar Assn.’s Federal Criminal Practice Seminar
April 11, 2008
“THE ADAM WALSH ACT�
AN OVERVIEW
Re: Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 – H.R.4472 – Public Law No: 109-248
I. Note
There are no official changes; however, there are several proposed updates moving through Congress. I listed the citations on those [...]

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Rita, Gall and Kimbrough:
A Chance for Real Sentencing Improvements
Amy Baron-Evans
April 4, 2008
In a series of cases beginning in 1999, the Supreme Court examined the historical
roots of the right to jury trial in both the original Constitution and the Bill of Rights. See U.S. Const. Art. III, § 2, cl. 3, U.S. Const. Amend. 6. [...]

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As many of you know, the first shot fired in the modern Sixth Amendment revolution left the Supreme Court’s muzzle seven years ago in Apprendi v. New Jersey.
In that opinion, the Court explained that the Sixth Amendment mandated that “other than the fact of a prior conviction, any fact that increases the penalty for a [...]

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Building on its 2005 decision in United States v. Booker, the U.S. Supreme Court has now held that, in reviewing a district court’s sentence in criminal cases, appellate courts must review the sentence under a deferential abuse-of-discretion standard. This decision really puts the guidelines in their place, and it makes it crystal clear that, while [...]

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