Author: Broden & Mickelsen, LLP
A 66-year-old man in a wheelchair who claimed his veins would not handle a lethal injection failed to halt his death by lethal injection in Texas. Danny Bible was executed last month almost 40 years after the body of 20-year-old Inez Deaton was found in a field near a car wash in Harris County. Bible…
White collar crimes may not cause physical harm to victims like crimes of violence but they often attract tough sentences. Late last month, a former Texas state senator was sentenced to 12 years in a federal prison over his involvement in a Ponzi scheme. Sen. Carlos Uresti was contrite when he appeared before a federal…
Scams targeting elderly people are endemic in Texas. Older people are more vulnerable to fraudsters leading police departments to step up awareness campaigns to protect the elderly. Recently, the Dallas Morning News featured the work of Christopher Bianez, an officer with the Plano Police Department. AARP Magazine featured Bianez on the cover of its March…
In a further victory for privacy, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled police must obtain a warrant to use cellphone locational data in the tracking of criminal suspects. This important ruling by the justices was handed down on June 22. The 5-4 decision was criticized by former prosecutors and dissenting justices who said it puts…
For years, a massive backlog of untested rape kits in Texas has hindered investigations and the potential exoneration of people wrongly convicted of sexual offenses. However, a new law that crowdfunds money for rape kit testing is making a dent in the problem. It collected almost $250,000 in its first five months, according to the…
A recent case in which a Romanian man was sent to a federal prison for a year illustrates how aggressive cyber gaming tactics can cross a line and become a criminal offense. Last month, a federal judge sentenced hacker Calin Mateias after he launched a series of cyber attacks after he became angry in the…
Fourth Amendment protections against unlawful search and seizure have been upheld in two recent landmark Supreme Court rulings related to the searches of vehicles. In both rulings handed down last month, the U.S. Supreme Court defended the right to privacy even when the parties in question broke the law. The cases were reported in USA…
Most of us are familiar with field sobriety tests for suspected drunk drivers. A DWI suspect may be asked to walk in a straight line or to stand and turn to indicate if he or she is intoxicated. These tests are still widely used in Texas DWI cases to establish probable cause despite evidence that…
Hypnosis conjures up images of magicians and pendulums but it is used to secure convictions in Texas. Now two Dallas defendants who believe the technique landed them on Death Row are challenging the state’s use of hypnosis. The Dallas Morning News reported how Texas has one of the most well-used forensic hypnosis programs in the…
A secretive federal surveillance program led to the arrest of a black activist in Dallas who was jailed for five months over his Facebook posts, a new report claims. The ordeal faced by Rakem Balogun was detailed by The Guardian last week. The black activist described how he was picked up in an FBI operation…