Hate crimes are criminal acts that arise from the perpetrator’s prejudice or hatred towards a particular group of people. Sometimes, hatred towards a specific race or religion is what causes a perpetrator to act. At other times, the motivating factor could be gender identity, sexual orientation, or even disability. In 2001, the Governor of Texas signed the James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Act (The Byrd Act) into law. The Byrd Act defines a hate crime as a crime that is explicitly motivated by the victim’s race, religion, gender, color, disability, sexual preference, national origin, or age. Other states have hate crime laws, and their definition of what constitutes a hate crime varies, so the definition of hate crimes is not uniform among the states. There are also federal hate crime laws.

The states are also not in agreement as to whether to treat hate crimes differently than other crimes, because there is always some underlying offense, whether it is an assault, murder, kidnapping, vandalism, or some other crime, that is recognized as an offense under the law. Some lawmakers are hesitant to support enhanced penalties for hate crimes because they feel as though doing so punishes specific thoughts in addition to the actions that arise from those thoughts. Other lawmakers feel as though discerning an individual’s intent is not something that can be accomplished with a legally acceptable degree of certainty, so they, too, are hesitant to endorse laws that impose additional penalties for hate crimes beyond what the law provides for each particular type of offense. Other factors in the hate crime law debate include the effects on crime victims and communities of classifying some acts as hate crimes and not others, and whether punishments for hate crimes are imposed equally on all offenders or whether offenders who target certain groups are punished more severely than those who focus on other categories of victims.

Hate crime law is a murky area of criminal law, and defendants accused of hate crimes need a reliable, experienced criminal defense attorney in their corner. Defense strategies for individuals charged with hate crimes vary with individual circumstances, but because of the nature of hate crimes, an effective defense may incorporate strategies that address political or media bias in relation to a particular case in addition to the defense strategies that are available based upon the type of offense that the defendant is accused of. Hate crime defendants require defense that goes above, and beyond the defense that would typically be needed for the crime they are charged with and seasoned Texas criminal defense attorneys can provide that type of support to their clients.

Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Alex Tyra – Strong Support for Texas Defendants

When you are charged with a hate crime, your rights are at stake, and your safety may be at risk. Due to the divisive nature of hate crimes, individuals accused of committing hate crimes are often the target of incendiary violence before they even have a chance to defend themselves against the charges. Protect yourself and your loved ones, your present freedom, and your future well being by working with a Texas criminal defense attorney on your hate crime case. Call Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Alex Tyra, at (903) 753-7499, or fill out a contact form on our website

Competence is an issue that can come up in any Texas criminal case, including a DWI case. For court proceedings to be just, a defendant must be competent to stand trial. An individual who is competent to stand trial is both capable of understanding the proceedings that have been brought against them and capable of helping their defense counsel represent them in those proceedings. Capability does not necessarily require a high level of understanding or skill. Instead, it describes an elementary type of intelligence and ability that most people have most of the time.

It is imperative that all criminal and DWI defendants understand that raising the issue of competence is not a defense to the crime that they are charged with. Raising the issue of competence is a tool that a defense attorney can use to ensure that their client’s trial is fair by putting court proceedings on hold until the defendant’s competence is assessed and the court decides whether the defendant can become competent to stand trial. For example, if a defendant is found to have a type of mental impairment that could respond well to therapy, medication or a combination of both, the defendant will be ordered to receive those treatments for a period of time that could enable the treatments to take effect. The case could then proceed to trial once the defendant demonstrates that have achieved competence.

An example of a case in which competence was at issue is the case of Thomas Gene Riddle, of San Antonio. Shortly after Riddle was accused of murder in 2016, he was declared incompetent to stand trial. In July of 2017, he was transferred from prison to North Texas State Hospital, where he received treatment. A year later, Riddle was returned to jail and declared competent to stand trial. Riddle’s attorney reports that he plans to use the insanity defense during his upcoming jury trial.

Some of the issues that can come up in cases where competence is disputed involve differing opinions among the professionals who have evaluated the defendant’s competence. At other times, there may be questions about whether the professionals who evaluated the defendant followed the proper procedures in examining them and reporting their findings.

Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Alex Tyra – An Ally for Texas Defendants

Competence is just one of many issues that can arise during a Texas criminal or DWI case. DWI and criminal defendants have a lot at stake, and a Texas defense attorney can help them protect their rights. If you’re currently facing criminal or DWI charges in Texas, you do not have to develop a defense strategy on your own. In fact, doing so is not recommended because there is so much at stake, including your freedom. No matter what charge you face, whether it is a misdemeanor, your first DWI, a repeat offense DWI, a felony, or something even more severe, you are probably worried about the penalties you are facing. An experienced Texas defense attorney is prepared to help you protect the people and things that matter most to you. Your attorney knows your rights, they can help you understand them, and they can help you develop a plan for resolving your Texas criminal law matter. Call Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Alex Tyra, at (903) 753-7499, or fill out a contact form on our website.

A student at Texas’s Santa Fe High School recently brought two of his father’s guns to school and used them to kill eight students and two teachers and to wound twelve other people. Since the shooter was seventeen years old at the time he opened fire on his schoolmates and teachers, under Texas law, his father cannot be held accountable for having made the guns accessible to him. The teen’s father legally owns the guns, so no charges related to illegal gun ownership can be brought either.

The legal definition of “child” in Texas state law as a person who is age sixteen or younger controls the outcome of this situation. Had Dimitrios Pagourtzis been sixteen years old or younger at the time he committed the school shooting, his father could have been prosecuted under Texas’s “negligent storage law.” Texas has a law that enables prosecutors to hold gun owners criminally liable for gun crimes committed by their children. As noted above, since Pagourtzis was not a child when he committed the crime, his father cannot be charged.

Thirteen other states have similar laws to the Texas “negligent storage law.” It is estimated that criminal charges against an adult are brought in approximately half of the reported incidents where children under the age of twelve have obtained a gun and used it to kill themselves or someone else. Data on children in other age groups, particularly teenagers, are not as readily available. Based on the Texas situation described above, it is reasonable to assume that the percentage of times that charges get pressed against adults when teens and kids over the age of twelve commit gun crimes vary according to the language of those laws and the ages of the people to whom they apply.

Whether you reside in a state that has a “negligent storage law” or not, the more significant issue is that gun owners should be locking their guns away safely so that nobody – not children, and not anyone else – can get their hands on them. It is reported that approximately one-third of all households in America contain at least one gun. Safe storage of firearms is a much bigger problem in our nation than many of us may be aware of, as a study recently published in the Journal of Urban Health recently revealed that a little over our and a half million American children live in homes where one or more guns are stored unlocked and loaded.

Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Alex Tyra – Uncompromising Support for Texas Defendants

Have you been charged with a gun-related crime, or with any other type of crime in Texas? Whether you are accused of having committed a felony or something less severe, there is a lot at stake, including your freedom. Protect the things that you value most by seeking the aid of a Texas Criminal Defense Attorney. Your attorney will help you understand the rights that you have, and they can help you resolve your Texas criminal law matter in the best possible way. Call Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Alex Tyra, at (903) 753-7499, or fill out a contact form on our website.

A man who went to prison for nineteen years for a murder that he did not commit continues to work through the process of clearing his name. John Nolley’s most recent step towards victory came earlier this month when the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned his murder conviction. Nolley has been out of prison since the combined efforts of the Innocence Project, and the Conviction Integrity Unity in the Tarrant County district attorney’s office secured his release two years ago.

One of the bases for John Nolley’s murder conviction was jailhouse informant testimony, a form of evidence that proved to be so problematic that the Tarrant County District Attorney’s office, and eventually the entire state of Texas, had to reform the way such testimony is handled. In Nolley’s case, not just one, but two informants gave false testimony which tainted Nolley’s trial so severely that the district attorney’s office agreed that his pleas for relief were valid. The new law will help other defendants avoid wrongful convictions. There is also the possibility of relief for people who are currently in prison who were wrongfully convicted.

Texas’s new law on jailhouse informant testimony was passed last year, with the aim of improving accuracy in the Texas criminal justice system by calling for the more careful handling of testimony given by jailhouse informants. False testimony like the kind that kept John Nolley behind bars for almost twenty years is the most common reason for death row inmates to be exonerated.

One of the dangers of jailhouse informant testimony is that people who are incarcerated have an incentive to lie to potentially obtain a personal benefit. In the interest of catching informants who do try to lie their way to a better deal, the new law requires county and district attorney’s offices to keep records of various types of information about the informants who provide testimony against others. For example, each informant’s criminal history, as well as the details of any benefits informants receive in exchange for their testimony, and records of any previous cases in which they testified must be shared by prosecutors with defense attorneys.

In passing the law requiring transparency and careful handling of jailhouse informant testimony, Texas took a step forward in making its criminal justice system more accurate. Since jailhouse informant testimony is used to secure many convictions across America, it is essential that other states follow Texas’s lead and take a careful account of how that testimony is obtained and used in their own courts so that they can correct problems with their state laws and move in the direction of increased accuracy.

In addition to moving through the process of fully exonerating John Nolley, the district attorney’s office is continuing its investigation into the murder in the hope that the person who did commit the murder will be brought to justice. If John Nolley is exonerated, he will be able to access a state benefits program that compensates the wrongfully accused.

Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Alex Tyra – Strong Advocacy for Texas Defendants

A Texas Criminal Defense Attorney can help you resolve your Texas criminal law matter. Call Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Alex Tyra, at (903) 753-7499, or fill out a contact form on our website.

Justice is not always swift. Sometimes the road to victory is long and treacherous, and for people who get wrongfully convicted and sent to death row, the success of their appeals can make the difference between life and death. A death row inmate finally got freed after a lengthy appeal revealed that the prosecutor withheld evidence during his trial and, while under oath, denied having information that supported the defendant’s alibi.

Alfred Dewayne Brown, along with two others, got convicted of killing a police officer and a clerk during a 2003 robbery at a check cashing store. Throughout his trial and subsequent incarceration on death row, Brown maintained his innocence and said that there are phone records which could prove that he was at home at the time that the robbery and murders happened.

The phone records that Brown said would support his alibi show that he had called his girlfriend from his home at the time that the crimes were in progress. The records got found in 2013 by a detective who was searching Brown’s home. They were in his garage. After the records got found, a court overturned Brown’s conviction, and prosecutors chose not to bring the case back to trial.

In 2008, Dan Rizzo said under oath that he didn’t withhold information that could have aided Alfred Dewayne Brown’s defense. The prosecutor claims that not mentioning that the phone records got found was a mistake, that the failure to disclose the records was unintentional. However, that assertion and how sworn statement directly contradicts a recently recovered email that just got released by the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. The email shows that in 2003, before Brown’s trial, the prosecutor got told about phone records that could have been used to support Brown’s defense. The prosecutor never told Brown’s defense attorney about the phone records, despite the “Brady Rule” that requires that any materials that could possibly exculpate a defendant get provided to that defendant’s attorneys by the prosecution.

Alfred Dewayne Brown is now free, and in light of what had happened in his case, there is an effort underway to examine the prosecutor’s conduct in other cases, some of which resulted in convictions just as serious as Brown’s capital murder conviction. The cases that will get reviewed are cases in which the defense alleges violations of the Brady rule. It has not yet gotten decided how many cases could potentially get affected by the review.

Unfortunately, the statute of limitations for a possible perjury case against Rizzo has already run. It is still possible that he could face disciplinary action, but it is uncertain what result that would have because he is retired. Brown had been pursuing a civil suit against Harris County for compensation for the ten years that he spent wrongfully incarcerated on death row. The state rejected his request for compensation, saying that it cannot pay him since he has not been declared innocent. It is unclear whether Brown or anyone else will continue to pursue compensation.

Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Alex Tyra – An Ally for Texas Defendants

If you recently got charged with a crime, know you do not have to fight your Texas criminal charges alone. A Texas Criminal Defense Attorney can walk with you through your criminal case towards a successful resolution. Call Texas Criminal Defense Attorney Alex Tyra, at (903) 753-7499, or fill out a contact form on our website.