Steph Stradley's Blog: Law, Criminal Law and More
What Not To Wear: Harris County Criminal Court Edition
The husband Bill reported seeing a guy at the Harris County Criminal Justice Center wearing this t-shirt. He wasn't sure if the guy was a defendant or visitor, but I don't have to tell you that's not an appropriate look anywhere. I don't think this would impress the judge in a case…or the ladies. If you disagree and feel the need to broadcast your manhood status to the world, you can find this shirt at Spread Shirt for $20.90. Bill thought about taking a picture of the actual guy wearing the shirt, but you don't want to be busted taking [...]
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Clipper Darrell and The Legal Issues of Super Fandom
I've been watching the sad Clipper Darrell super fan saga with great interest. He says he is devastated that the Clippers told him that they preferred for him to drop the "Clipper" out of his name. Upset enough that just talking about it makes him cry (Part 1 and Part 2 on YouTube). The Clippers responded with a crushing, ugly statement saying that that Clipper Darrell "has not returned our support in an honorable way. He is not actually a fan of the Clippers, but a fan of what he can make off of the Clippers." A followup article by [...]
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Nope!
NOPE! I guess from now on when I want to say "Nope" to someone with a face that says "Really??!," I will just link to this page. ——————- This is a picture of the spouse Bill when we visited the Houston Modern Market this weekend. I'm not sure you want a gigantic mod sign saying "NOPE" in your house or place of business. Think if there's a Feng Shui rule on enormous signs, this one would bring too much negative energy. I didn't end up buying anything at the market this year, but like last year, I find it inspirational. [...]
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Talking to Your Kids About Jail and Avoiding Dumb Choices
Most of the people who hire our criminal defense firm have never been in trouble with the law before and see themselves as law-abiding people. Everybody wants to throw the book at criminals unless it is them or their loved one that becomes part of the legal process. In our practice, we see many cases of people who get arrested due to random dumb things, misunderstandings and/or a weird set of circumstances. And one of the most difficult situations is when kids become a part of the legal system. It can disrupt their school and life plans. Seems like there [...]
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Q&A on the Jerry Sandusky Child Sex Abuse Cases
As a former assistant district attorney and current criminal defense lawyer, my husband, Bill Stradley is known for working on difficult trial cases that other attorneys do not have experience handling. Recently, he was asked by Ian Simpson of Reuters to comment on the Jerry Sandusky child sexual assault case. This Q&A format may help expand on his thoughts and help further understanding of the situation. Our Q&A: Q: In the article, you were quoted as saying "This is going to be a difficult trial. It's going to be brutal." Can you explain further? A-Bill Stradley: The difficulty of most [...]
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My Sister Deb’s Thanksgiving Message to Us All
I learned about blogging from my sister Debby. She wrote an inspirational blog that started off talking about her life and her love for daughter Zoe, and sadly ended talking about her fight against leukemia that eventually resulted in her death (her obit). She beat leukemia once, but relapsed in November 2008. On Thanksgiving of that year, she became very sick from the effects of the chemotherapy, and I rushed her to the MD Anderson ER. I've never been as thankful as I was that Thanksgiving. Sad we couldn't be with our family, but thankful that hospital workers were there [...]
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Want to Save Taxpayer Money? Stop Federalizing Crimes.
One way that politicians on both sides of the aisle get elected is being "tough on crime." Nobody wants to take laws off the books that make them look soft. If there's a high profile bad act that happens, the first action is a politician grandstanding to fight that evil with a new law. There's also big money lobbying interests who want to criminalize acts against their businesses. That protects businesses, but taxpayers end up paying for this enforcement service. Problem is more laws mean more money. Money to prosecute those cases and to have judges hear them. Money to [...]
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My Favorite Houston E-Mail / Website in 2011
Most emails I get aren't terribly uplifting. Through accident, I found one that truly has benefited my day to day life. Everybody I've shared this with agrees with me, so there must be something to it. Click here and add your email address. You will receive a short email every day before you wake up. Read it. Think. Be inspired. Improve your life. Dr. Jim Jackson is the Senior Pastor of United Chapelwood Church in Houston. He uses a variety of radio and internet methods to reach out to people. The blog that contains the daily emails is called "Jim's [...]
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The Amanda Knox Case: Character Assassination Versus Evidence
Today, Amanda Knox was found not guilty of murdering and sexually assaulting her roommate by an Italian appeals court. As a lawyer, I find the differences between the Italian criminal defense system and the American system fascinating. (In Italy, they review all the evidence at the appeal level in front of a jury that includes judges). As someone who has worked as credentialed media, I find much of the coverage of the Knox trial repulsive. After years of exploitive media coverage, the case has been described in many American news sources today as "Character assassination versus evidence." Lurid, irrelevant personal [...]
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Fined for a Typo? The Story of the ‘Wicked Bible’
Interesting story today in the New York Times about King James Bible exhibit hosted at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington DC. They are commemorating the 400 year anniversary of the King James translation of the Bible by showing rare and unique Bibles collected from around the globe. One of the more interesting Bibles featured is the so-called "Wicked Bible." The original printer of the King James Bible, Robert Barker, got in trouble for leaving out the word "not" in a subsequent edition. Unfortunately, the offending sentence read, "Thou shall commit adultery." Oops. The Wiki on Robert Barker says that [...]
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‘Presumption of Innocence’ or ‘Everybody Knows They’re Guilty?’
I'm often asked to comment on legal issues by non-lawyer media members. I enjoy helping with that, though it is sometimes hard to explain legal matters without simplifying to the point of inaccuracy. The following is an email exchange that happened with a story that the journalist decided not to write after getting my response because it made him think of the issue differently: Media Question: "Do you think the pace with which the league or it's teams now take disciplinary action against players who've not been found guilty (like Pat McAfee) or not even been charged (like Kenny Britt) [...]
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To Kill A Mockingbird: Representing Unpopular Clients in the Modern World
As a child, I didn't know any attorneys. Probably didn't meet one until I did an internship at a large lawfirm during college when I was trying to figure out whether I was going to law school. My first exposure to the legal profession was reading To Kill a Mockingbird in high school. From reading the interesting wiki on the book, apparently Atticus Finch made an impression on generations of lawyers. This also was my first exposure of how lawyers sometimes need to represent publicly unpopular clients. There are differing legal and ethic obligations for doing so, and the standards [...]
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Blogging Fundamentals: A Guide for Beginners
I've been asked to talk to a high school class about fundamentals of blogging. Instead of giving out handouts, I figured the best thing to do was to write a blog post. Here's some Blogging 101 tips: What is a Blog. The word "blog" comes from the word web log. In the legal world, they are sometimes called "blawgs." The wiki on blogs defines it as: "type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, [...]
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