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In the back of my mind...

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https://tdcaa.infopop.net/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/157098965/m/3701025022

June 02, 2011, 10:31
Lisa Peterson
In the back of my mind...
there is some rule concerning charging a defendant under the statute that most precisely fits his conduct. Am I dreaming, or can someone help me find it?

(The DA generously agreed to drop a case to me, and now defense counsel is balking. The facts squarely fit the felony, and have to be massaged to make the misdemeanor - and I have been trying to explain to counsel that he can either take a plea with me or it goes back to a felony for trial.)

Thanks!

Lisa L. Peterson
Nolan County Attorney
June 02, 2011, 10:37
John A. Stride
in pari materia (the specific statute controls over the more general statute). Judge Onion provides a useful discussion of the doctrine in Ex parte Wilkinson, 641 S.W.2d 927 (Tex. Crim. App. 1982).
June 02, 2011, 10:55
Lisa Peterson
Thanks, John. I KNEW it was there, but there are times my brain, as Tolkien would say, resembles a lumberyard...that most needed is most deeply buried!

Lisa L. Peterson
Nolan County Attorney
June 02, 2011, 14:31
JB
Unfortunately, the inability to call up such legal trivia gets more difficult. Need a google for the brain.
June 03, 2011, 09:08
Lisa Peterson
Thanks for understanding...on BOTH threads!

Lisa L. Peterson
Nolan County Attorney