Once again, The Supremes have created more confusion than clarity. The U.S. Supreme Court's decision this week in Rothgery v. Gillispie County, Texas seems to raise more questions than it answers concerning the right to counsel in a criminal case. Rothgery had been arrested and jailed in Gillespie County and mistakenly charged with Felon in Possession of a Firearm because his record incorrectly showed that he had a previous felony conviction. At jail, Rothgery was taken in front of judge, who found probable cause to believe that Rothgery comitted the crime and set bail. Rothgery then posted bail.
Deferred adjudication in drug cases isn't all it's cracked up to be (excuse the bad pun). A got a call from the father of a potential client in a Guadalupe County Possession of Marijuana case and was asked "Why does he even need a lawyer, isn't he just going to get deferred adjudication anyway?" Why does he need a lawyer?
I got a client's Possession of Marijuana case dismissed at the jury trial docket in Seguin this week.
The first question the client asked me after the State told us it would dismiss the case was: "How soon can I get my arrest record expunged?"
This is an important question for him, since he is job-hunting, and even an arrest for Possession of Marijuana might show up on a potential employer's criminal background check. The answer I had to give him, unfortunately, was: "Not as soon as you would like or expect."