The following excerpt highlights a big difference between TDCAA and TCDLA: we are open for all to review our work. Given the use of public money, shouldn't TCDLA be, too?

DA Says Prosecutor Who Attended Defense-Oriented CLE Event Had Good Reason to Be There

John Council
Texas Lawyer
02-21-2005


If there was any doubt about which segment of the criminal bar the four-day continuing legal education seminar was meant for, all anyone had to do was consider the title: "Capital Trial Advocacy � The Defense."

But on Jan. 26, the first day of the event, numerous criminal-defense attorneys attending that Plano seminar were hopping mad when they discovered a prosecutor in their midst at the program put on by the Center for American and International Law.

The prosecutor, Stephen Tittle, a Hunt County assistant district attorney, initially was told the seminar was full. But on Jan. 26, with the permission of the person at the registration desk, Tittle gained entry by taking the spot of a defense attorney who was unable to attend the seminar, says Tittle's boss, Hunt County District Attorney Duncan Thomas.

I attended a seminar in Dallas several years ago put on by the Defense Bar on defending Aggravated Sexual Assaults. I thought I would learn a lot but came away feeling that our training is far superior.The only thing new was the Plymthisgraph ??(mispelled) Poor guy has electodes attached to his penis and the counselor monitors his erections when he looks at pictures of little children etc.Wonder if electric shocks might cure them???

I have not been to the Rusty Duncan Seminar in San Antonio since either 1997 or 1998, but for several years in a row, I attended it instead of the State Bar Annual Update.

At that particular seminar, which was not focused purely on capital proceedings, I was always made to feel very welcome, and usually was not the only ada there.

I found it useful to gain a different perspective on various topics we all deal with daily. There was as much cheerleading for defense attorneys (lots of old west analogies, the guys with the white hats, etc.) as we have a TCDAA functions.

But I was most amused by a poster, suitable for framing, they were selling at the T-shirt table. The slogan: "Gunfighters don't charge by the bullet", which I took to be a comment on the fact that some criminal defense attorneys, if not most, like to charge that big flat fee rather than an hourly or a result oriented fee (meaning if the case gets dismissed it's less than if we go to trial).

For several years, I have spoken at an annual seminar sponsored by the Corpus Christi Bar Association. An excellent, one-day, seminar that deliberately seeks to bring together judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys. Speakers are encouraged to give advice that is useful from all of those perspectives. As lawyers, we ought to be able to do that.

The Annual State Bar Advanced Criminal Law Seminar is another good example. That one is a week long and is attended by a pretty good cross-section of the criminal bar.

I notice that the seminar that excluded the Fort Worth prosecutor is the one sponsored by the new group that got their first grant from the Court of Criminal Appeals just this last year. They claim to be some sort of "International" group. They have invited prosecutors to come and speak at their seminars.

I also notice that it was the defense attorneys attending the conference, not the sponsor itself, that seems to have kicked out the prosecutor. So, who is in charge -- the grantee or the attendees?

Like Greg, I attended the Rusty Duncan course three times in the late nineties. The course attendees always made me feel welcome and I even ran into a few electeds there. I believe our training is far superior, though. I will say that there was MUCH more prosecutor-bashing than any editorializing about defense lawyers I hear at TDCAA seminars.

At the last elected course, I spoke on the topic of Protesting Parole. Sitting in the front row was the local legal representative of Austin's ACLU. She paid her fee and attended the course, among our elected officials. I was glad to deliver my message to both the elected DA's and the ACLU.

If we are hesitating to deliver information because a defense attorney is present, then we should question what is wrong with our message. Why can't the defense be held to that same standard?

The claim of confidential info is a red herring. There is no confidentiality between defense attorneys at a publicly financing training. Any of those defense attorneys could be a prosecutor the next day. They don't sign anything or take any oath to keep training secret.

I hope the CCA votes to require registration to be open to any attorney. Frankly, that wouldn't be a bad way to keep the training appropriate and not some sort of big lobbying effort.

I would not change any talk I give through TDCAA or elsewhere if criminal defense lawyers were present. I do think the Basic skills course should be limited to new prosecutors although it might make the Predicate Bowl more of a contact sport.