Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center
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Murray Newman is a former Chief Harris County Prosecutor practicing only criminal defense in Harris and Brazos Counties and the surrounding areas. An insider's view of what is really happening in the Harris County Criminal Courts.
Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center
3w ago
We tried to host a debate but Republican candidate Dan Simons declined to join us. We enjoyed talking to Democratic Candidate Sean Teare ..read more
Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center
3w ago
David Mitcham responded to the earlier show with Ted & Jani Maselli Wood and Chris Daniel ..read more
Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center
2M ago
Public Defenders Jani Maselli Wood and Ted Wood brought to our attention an interesting issue with the Harris County District Clerk's Office deliberately not following the law on standardized judgment forms. There's a lot of interesting information in the episode.
Not only are we apparently doing things wrong by not requesting findings on indigency on the record during pleas, apparently the District Clerk's Office really doesn't want to comply with a Public Information request about their communications on the event ..read more
Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center
4M ago
I'm dusting off the cobwebs from the old blog to do a public service announcement that all courts will be closed tomorrow, Tuesday, July 9th.
I've heard rumors that the CJC came through Hurricane Beryl okay, but obviously the city is still a mess.
I hope everyone is staying safe out there ..read more
Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center
8M ago
SCENE: The Death Star orbits over Downtown Houston. [INTERIOR] The Imperial Council Chambers. EMPRESS OGG sits at the head of a long table with her council advisors lined down each side. It is STARDATE MARCH 5 - T-MINUS 20 seconds
EMPRESS OGG: Beloved minions, we stand on the precipice of what will be a great and lengthy battle --
THE SPACE DOOR OPENS AND VICE-ADMIRAL MITCHAM HURRIES IN.
VICE-ADMIRAL MITCHAM: Okay, we lost.
(STUNNED SILENCE)
EMPRESS OGG: What do you mean "we lost," Vice-Admiral? The battle literally began two seconds ago.
VICE-ADMIRAL MITCHAM:&nb ..read more
Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center
9M ago
In addition to the extremely heated battle for Harris County District Attorney, there are only a handful of other races within the Criminal Justice Center. Just because the District Attorney's Race is getting all of the attention these days doesn't mean that those races aren't extremely important.
Republican Primary
With the exception of former Assistant District Attorney and current Defense Attorney Tonya Rolland McLaughlin running for place 4 on the 14th Court of Appeals, there aren't any contested races on the Republican side that have a direct impact on CJC. If you ..read more
Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center
9M ago
I always get somewhat amused when I see my name attached to the label of "Frequent Ogg Critic" in articles where I comment on Kim Ogg's job performance as Harris County District Attorney. I am quick to point out that I didn't start out as a critic of hers -- quite the opposite, actually. I voted for her in 2016 and I was public about my support for her, much to the disapproval of a lot of my friends.
My criticisms of Kim have been earned over the years and they've all been based on what I've seen her do in her professional capacity. It isn't personal. It's not like she ..read more
Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center
1y ago
I heard this morning that former District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal passed away overnight. He had been in ill health for quite some time and I heard he had taken a turn for the worse over the past few weeks. The news of his passing was not unexpected.
To say that Chuck left behind a complicated legacy would be an extreme understatement, especially for those of us who worked as Assistant District Attorneys under his administration. Although I started my prosecutorial career under Johnny Holmes, he retired a little over a year after I started and the vast majority of my tenure ..read more
Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center
1y ago
It's good to see that Sean Teare is capturing the attention of the audience on the campaign trail ..read more
Life at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center
1y ago
I had jury duty for the first time in a couple of years today. In the 33 years since I've been eligible to be a juror, I had only sat through three voir dires before today. I never made the jury on any of them. The first was a criminal case in Brazos County when I was at A&M. The second was a criminal case in Harris County shortly after I left the D.A.'s Office where my friend and former co-worker Wendy Baker utilized a State Strike on me because she thought I was too good of friends with Defense Counsel Mark Bennett -- as I pointed out to her later, I never d ..read more