Erik is a little more tactful than I am, so let me add this in his defense: WE NEED SPEAKERS on "rural-oriented" topics. One of the biggest problems we face is not just finding good topics, but finding good teachers. We value those we have, but we are always on the search for more.

TDCAA training is effective because it uses knowledgable, experienced prosecutors to train other prosecutors--but we have to have volunteers from the former in order to do the latter. And to be a speaker for TDCAA, a prosecutor generally must attend our 4-day Train the Trainer seminar AND be able to prepare a paper AND a PowerPoint AND present that talk on one or more occassions--all without compensation. Unfortunately, those requirements can be hard on a rural prosecutor who does not have other lawyers in his or her office to pick up the slack during those times he or she is working on TDCAA-related training (unlike in bigger offices). In my opinion, that fact--more than anything else--is why most of our speakers are from urban areas, and why their talks may reflect an urban perspective. But as far as I know, there's only one way to change that.

So ... who's ready to volunteer?

I've already done all those things, Shannon, but I'm not sure you guys want me in your training stable. I am willing, if you are.

I would be willing to go through training. I think a lot of prosecuters beleived it was by invitation only.

We'd love to have you come to train the trainers, Sarah. I'll put you on the list for this March 6-9th, 2012 at Fredericksburg Inn of the Hills.

And Tim, we'd love to have you speak too, as you went through the faculty development before I arrived.

So talk to your rural brethren, get some topics we can discuss in either 2 hour-and-a-half sessions or 3 one-hour sessions and we'll get the agenda for these regionals rolling.

Thanks, Erik. As always, you are responsive to the needs of your members. Sara, my email is ctimcole@yahoo.com. Let's bounce some stuff around. Anyone else reading this please contribute as well.

I also am willing to get involved. Tim's post reminded me that we spend a good portion of voir dire figuring out who is related to the defendant, and the defense lawyer. I had a case where 3/4 of the panel were friends/neighbors with the defense lawyer, and four people who got on the jury knew him on a first name basis. They still did the right thing and found the defendant guilty though. But I'd guess that is the sort of thing that a prosecutor in a small district would have come up more than someone in a larger district.

Yes, we spend time on that also, Troy. It is not uncommon at all to come across a jury panel with two or three former clients of the defense attorney who may also practice family and probate law. There are also differences in the way jurors are impaneled. We have no central jury room. If we don't have enough jurors appear as summoned, we must either cancel the trial, send out for more while everyone sits and waits, or -- as my office has done now in about four trials during the past year -- simply forgo the use of all our state's peremptory challenges to reduce the strike zone. In one recent trial, we exercised only two peremptories in order to proceed with the trial.

The relationship/friendship card cuts both ways. One of my favorite voir dires was when I had an Aunt and 2 uncles on the panel and a defense attorney from out of town. Nothing like asking "Now Aunt Jessie, you can be fair to the defendant can't you?"

I have also learned to be careful with Facebook and Twitter. I had a juror that followed me on Facebook. I had actually forgot about it and posted something relatively benign about my case (I think my reference to the defendant was less than flattering) when she "cryptically" responded in a comment. I kind of freaked and let the judge and defense attorney know the next morning. Since my FB post wasn't particularly bad and the juror, when questioned by the judge told him it didn't have any effect on her (I think she said something like "Judge, you just gotta know Tuck. He'll say the first thing that pops in is head. It doesn't bother me).

I don't think these are problems they have very often in the city.

Yes, you must be careful on FB and TWTR in small jurisdictions. In our counties, we have to remember that we simply are more widely known and recognized than the big city prosecutors. That's nothing against them; it's just a fact of life. Jurors are more likely to know us or follow us on social media, or read about us in the newspaper. As I posted previously, every single jury trial that we try is reported in the newspaper, usually with quotes from the prosecutor. I have a local defense attorney in my jurisdiction who writes and edits a fairly popular blog. He posts comments about his cases even while the cases are being tried. I recently picked a jury with that defense attorney and asked the panel if anyone followed his blog. Several hands were raised. Simply underscores what we have already said.

I'm board certified in "stupid questions" so don't worry about it.

One of the AAG's wanted me to post a reminder in this thread that the "Attorney General's Office has a section called 'Criminal Prosecution Division' which will send a prosecutor to rural districts at the request of the local D.A. to help out on child abuse, cyber crime, white collar, and murder cases, etc. We will second-chair or first-chair, as requested and we may have more resources to bring with us that can help a smaller county."
They are a great resource, so in the applicable situations, don't forget about your other friends in Austin (besides us here at TDCAA, I mean).

I have previously requested assistance from the AG on several cases, including a complex business fraud and a cold case capital murder. They did a great job.

At the risk of offending the AAG's, there are pros and cons to that decision, which are not appropriately discussed here but I would make that discussion part of any training I am asked to do on this issue. I'm not saying don't do it. I'm simply saying be educated and stay involved in the case.

We're beginning to finalize the "Rural Regionals" and here's a very brief snapshot (still not set yet, obviously)
We're hoping to go to six sites, and will have a full-day training at each. Right now, we're thinking that three sites will have a morning of rural appellate issues, followed by an afternoon of pre-trial/trial issues (where we still need ideas from y'all -- either two 1.5-hour classes or three 1-hour classes), and the other three sites would have a criminal justice overview morning aimed at Key Personnel and Paralegals to further their criminal justice knowledge, with the same afternoon trial/pre-trial session.
These topics were chosen based on feedback from several courses, questionnaires, and the responses on this user forum. But we're open to other ideas as well. Just understand that our resources, much like y'all's, are limited and therefore we can't teach everything to everyone.
Keep those ideas coming, folks. Thanks so much.