Denton County Criminal Defense Association

Innocence Project of Texas client, James Lee Woodard, was released from incarceration yesterday after serving more than 27 years for a murder that he has always maintained he did not commit. The victim, Woodard’s girlfriend at the time of the homicide, was found strangled and sexually assaulted on the banks of the Trinity River in Dallas, Texas. A rape kit was taken, and the evidence was preserved by the Southwest Institute for Forensic Sciences (SWIFS). When subjected to a DNA test, the rape kit indicated that James Woodard was not the victim’s attacker and that he had likely spent more than a quarter century in prison for a crime that he was not involved in.

Although at first glance this case appears to be a relatively simple DNA-based case, more than 1000 hours were spent by both the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office and the Innocence Project of Texas investigating Woodard’s claim of innocence. Once the DNA results excluded Woodard as the victim’s rapist, both organizations set out to interview all relevant witnesses and piece together the story leading up to Woodard’s conviction. This collaborative effort is one of the first of its kind, and it is a testament to the integrity of the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office.

For more information regarding James Lee Woodard and his case, please click here.

For more information about the collaborative effort of the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office and the Innocence Project of Texas, or to hear about the current state of justice in America today, please consider joining us tomorrow night for “Freedom and Justice in America: A Live Conversation Onstage” at the Angelika Theater in Dallas Texas. Details regarding this event can be found under the “Events” section of the ipoftexas.org website.

A founding member of the TCDLA, Hal Jackson, of Denton, Texas, passed away this morning at about 3am Central Time at home.

He was 87 years old.

Hal was a legendary defense lawyer here for decades, a great mentor and role model for all lawyers.

He joined the Navy during WWII; became famous for his exploits in squadron VF 17, the Jolly Rogers; was elected to the Legislature and practiced law for nearly 50 years.

He is survived by his wife Barbara.

Services are pending.

As many of you already know from the emails you have received, we are going to start using Google Groups to communicate. Eventually, the plan is to phase out the current Members Only section with the Google Group site. The hope is to replace the glitchy and hacker-prone system with a stable and secure one.

Here are a few advantages of Google Groups:

• It’s intuitive. It uses either an email interface like other list serves, or can be purely Internet-based like the current Members Only site. Anyone who can use the Internet or read email can use it.
• It’s efficient. Members can subscribe or unsubscribe automatically or limit the way the discussions are received.
• It’s flexible. You can either interact on the web site or by reading and responding through email.
• Brief Bank & file sharing. With the ability to store up to 100MB per group, and the ease in which anyone can share files, it will encourage file-sharing rather than discourage it. There will be no more hunting for briefs, forms, and other files because they’ll all be kept in one place.
• It’s Google. Google has proven to be a lasting force, and their services are aimed at increasing the usefulness of the Internet.
• It’s permanent! Unless they decide to cancel the program, which is highly unlikely, there will never again be the need to change the format. This could be the final change.

Of course, there is one “disadvantage,” and that is everyone must register an account with Google. But many people already have Google accounts, and having to register is no different from any other site.

To visit the Google Group page for DCCDLA, click here: http://groups.google.com/group/lcdla

The March Meeting is to be Wednesday, March 14, 2007 at noon in Denton at Joey’s Taste of Italy on the corner of Bell and East McKinney Street.

A welcome change of fare and a very nice location.

February 15 Luncheon at Sweetwater Grill

Our monthly noon lucheon at Sweetwater Grill will be this Thursday at noon.

Our speaker will be Leland Reinhard who will speak on “Dealing with the Impaired Client.”

The luncheon is open to all non-member criminal defense lawyers in Denton County.

See you there.

If you have any clients in jail in Dallas - Dallas County has to clear 1000 inmates out of the jail in the next 30 days. The following emergency measures are in effect for the next 30 days for Defendants in Jail:

PR bonds for many misdemeanors

Prostitution cases will be reduced to Class C Manifestation

12.45 any pending misd. that a felony defendant has at the time of felony plea

All state jails will be offered 180 days state jail or 12.44(a) reduction if they have enough backtime, regardless of criminal history.

After a year of activity and with the addition of more CDLA sites, I’ve decided that this site (and the others) could use an upgrade. This version is far more user-friendly, is easier for the administrators (like Bill Trantham and Chris Raesz) to use, and also has the ability to create a brief bank. Keep an eye out for the new features and keep checking the Members Only section for the latest gossip.

Lisa Story had her first DWI trial as a defense lawyer last week in Dallas CCC6 and got a Not Guilty! She is glad to be over with it, but it was clearly a job well done. Congratulations, Lisa!

On Thursday January 18, 2007, at the monthly meeting, Brent Bowen was elected President, Gina Hill was elected Vice-President and Dawn Moore was elected Treasurer. Outgoing President Karen Alexander presided over the meeting handing the official President’s Rubber Mallet over to Brent. More than thirty attended the meeting. New members joining were Lee Ann Breeding, Earl Dobson, Roger Jones, Darren Ralston and Beth Hayes, all coming over from the District Attorney’s Office. Their knowledge and experiences will be of great assistance to us all in the near future.

2007 dues are now being collected by Dawn Moore. If you want, dues can be delivered to Dawn, Brett or Gina if you see them in the hallway.

In State of Texas v. Charles Zascavage, decided by the Second Court of Appeals in Ft. Worth, Johnathan Bailey had his victory AFFIRMED with the Court ruling that the statute was un-Constitutional as
applied to his client. Congratulations, Johnathan!