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RICO Report
By Barry Tarlow
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RICO Report columns.
Texas justice: Worse than reality TV, it's real
Never doubt that a pro-prosecution judge can take a protection created
to preserve the appearance of justice and transform it into a bludgeon
or sword with which to attack the defense. That's justice. Texas style.
The background of the sleeping lawyer case is well known to anyone who
remained awake for more than five minutes over the last few years. In
contrast to O.J. Simpson, Calvin Burdine was represented by a different
type of dream team. After a trial that lasted less than 13 hours, and
during which his lawyer slept for substantial portions, Calvin Burdine
was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. The late Joe
Cannon, it seems, enjoyed an occasional snooze. When the testimony got
boring, he did what jurors sometimes do in that situation he nodded off
for a bit. Never mind that his client was on trial for his life,
charged with a capital murder not only in the nation's most death-happy
state, but i
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