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A woman drove me to drink and I didn't even have the decency to thank her.
-- W.C. Fields
Sleeping Lawyer is A-OK in Texas
2000-10-28 10:57:56
I sometimes wonder why they even bother with trials in Texas in death penalty cases. They should just shoot the defendant and save all the time and money spent on a trial.
In this particular outrage in the Texas "judicial" system, Calvin Burdine's attorney, Joe Cannon fell asleep during several parts of the trial. Naturally, this being Texas, the defendant was convicted and sentenced to die in the gas chamber in Huntsville. Burdine's appealled to the Fifth Circuit Court claiming that he could not have possibly received a fair trial if his attorney was asleep for part of it.
Unfortunately, for Mr. Burdine, the Fifth Circuit Court did not agree stating, ``We cannot determine whether Cannon slept during a critical stage of Burdine's trial,''
I'm sorry, but considering a man's life hangs in the balance I think every part of his trial is critical.
Also, it is clear that because the attorney ACTUALLY slept during the trial, he was tired and groggy for a good part of it. And certainly not alert and fully functional and hence not able to offer a quality defense.
Finally, WHAT THE HELL WAS THE TRIAL JUDGE DOING? How could he allow the trial to continue with the lawyer for the defense sleeping right in front of him? If nothing else, this shows that the judge was either completely incompetent or had a serious bias towards the prosecution.
I think Texans need to seriously reconsider their concept of justice and bring it out of the 18th century.
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