Emergency? Call Now I have stood at the State’s table and asked a Bexar County jury for a sentence of death. I was Chief of the Major Crimes Division at the time, and the jury returned that verdict. It was the first death sentence in the county in five years.
I do not tell you this to boast. I tell you because that trial taught me things a lawyer can only learn from the other side of the courtroom. Today I use every one of those lessons for the people I defend.
Lesson one: the State decides the story first
By the time a serious case reaches trial, the prosecution has chosen its story. Every witness, photo and exhibit is arranged to tell it. Evidence that does not fit gets less light.
When I open a new defense file, I look for the story the State has already chosen. Then I look for what it left out. The facts that do not fit are often where the truth lives.
Lesson two: “future danger” is a prediction, not a fact
In a Texas capital case, the jury must answer whether there is a probability the defendant would commit criminal acts of violence that would be a continuing threat to society (Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 37.071, § 2(b)(1)). As a prosecutor, I built that answer piece by piece.
I learned how much that answer rests on prediction. No one in that courtroom can see the future. A defense lawyer who understands how the State builds the prediction knows where to take it apart.
Lesson three: mitigation is where lives are saved
Even after a jury finds future danger, Texas law requires it to consider whether mitigating circumstances warrant a sentence of life without parole instead of death (Tex. Code Crim. Proc. art. 37.071, § 2(e)(1)). Mitigation is the person’s whole story: childhood, illness, trauma, the people who love him.
From the State’s table, I watched which mitigation reached jurors and which fell flat. Generic stories do not move people. Real, documented, human stories do. That work starts on day one, not the week before trial.
Lesson four: the system needs a fighter on both sides
A trial is only fair when both tables are fully armed. I believed that as a prosecutor. I live it now as a defense lawyer. The power of the State is enormous: investigators, laboratories, experts and time. The accused has one lawyer standing beside him.
I want to be the lawyer who knows the State’s playbook because I helped write it.
If you or someone you love is facing a serious charge
The earliest decisions in a case often matter most. Call me directly. I take every call myself.