I hope he does well on his appeal.On November 19, 2013, a jury of six members found Grisham guilty of this Class B misdemeanor when they were not allowed to consider self-defense as a motive for his actions. The judge in the case, retired Harris County Judge Neel Richardson, was heavily biased in the case, calling Grisham and his family "local yokels" and telling prosecutors and defense attorneys that if he had his way he would "put them all in jail and teach them how to be good parents." This explains why only 30% of his peers rated him an "excellent" judge in 2001, the year he retired.
In fact, in order for the county to secure their guilty verdict, they had to bring up this judge all the way from Harris County because no judges in Bell County would take the case. County Attorney Jim Nichols was rabid about finding any charge they could get to stick and then finding a judge that would go along with his efforts to protect an abusive police officer.
Ahhh, good ol' contempt of cop.
Hmm... I thought it was worth quoting this from the video's description:
I hope he does well on his appeal.
So, if you're still on the fence-give this a watch. Its pretty damning in my opinion.
Can the state charge the officer with perjury? They need to.
Can the state charge the officer with perjury? They need to.
From my five minutes of law school, yeah I quit. Judges convince the jury that they have very little power and all they are there for is to decide if X happened. Why did X happen doesn't matter, if X did happen what effect it has doesn't matter, or if you think that the law against X is wrong that doesn't matter. Guess what, you as a juror do have that power and that jury instruction...it is bunk. The judges like our "friend" the retired judge hems the jury into a little box that even if they don't want to convict they are "forced". This is why DAs can get an indictment of pretty much anyone on anything if they want.
The judge did not allow the defense to raise xyz....how dare he. The defense should be able to raise any issue they care too.