Speaking for Victims: Lessons Learned
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LESSONS LEARNED: IN AND OUT OF COURT TABLE OF CONTENTS (please use page #'s at bottom of the actual document) Introduction -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- i - viii Chapter 1 (A Summer Lesson) --------------------------------------------------------------- 1-8 Chapter 2 (The Cowboy Way) ---------------------------------------------------------------- 9-27 Chapter 3 (We Are What We Were) -------------------------------------------------------- 28-37 Chapter 4 (Ten Cents on the Dollar) ------------------------------------------------------- 38-53 Chapter 5 (Good Facts Made Bad Law) --------------------------------------------------- 54-64 Chapter 6 (Setting a Precedent in Redneck Country) ---------------------------------- 65-74 Chapter 7 (Trials Can Be Fun) ----------------------------------------------------------------- 75-88 Chapter 8 (Lose the Battle, Win the War – Petard Objection) ------------------------ 89-129 Chapter 9 (Bad Clients – Good Law) ---------------------------------------------------------- 130-141 Chapter 10 (Maybe Small Things Aren’t So Bad) ------------------------------------------ 142-168 Chapter 11 (Getting & Keeping Cases) -------------------------------------------------------- 169-185 Chapter 12 (Epiphanies: Guideposts for Modern Jury Persuasion) ------------------ 186-208 Chapter 13 (Good Enough or Safe Enough) -------------------------------------------------- 209-217 Chapter 14 (Backstage at the Courthouse) --------------------------------------------------- 218-235 Chapter 15 (The Wrong Person Doing the Wrong Thing at the Wrong Time) ------ 236-256 Chapter 16 (She Trusted the Wrong People) ------------------------------------------------- 257-277 Chapter 17 (Death at the Hands of Strangers) ----------------------------------------------- 278-300 Epilogue ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 301-305 Edited by Dale and Linda Felton INTRODUCTION I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, and our flag still waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrender or retreat! Those are the words sent by William Barrett Travis from the Alamo 184 years ago. Travis and 184 Texians, as they were then called, were surrounded by over 1000 soldiers of the Mexican Army led by General Santa Ana. The Generalisimo gives an ultimatum: Unless Travis surrenders, the Alamo defenders will be put to the sword! Like all real Texans, Travis didn’t consider surrender to be an option. He wrote that he was determined to “die like a solider,” and concluded his letter: “Victory or death!” Reinforcements never arrived, but the homicidal slaughter of Travis and the cremation of his and his fellow Alamo defenders’ remains by Mexican troops lit a prairie fire that drove the Texans to win their independence 45 days later at the Battle of San Jacinto. In a brawl that took less time than a WWE chain match General Sam Houston and the Texian Army gave General Santa Ana a Texas sized whipping. I believe it is this history that makes Texas trial lawyers different. Having tried cases in venues outside my state and meeting some of the best trial lawyers from around the country you can’t help but note that Texas trial lawyers can be as different as a Brahma bull on a ranch of Herefords. Like our revolutionary heroes, our courtroom advocates will charge hell with a bucket full of ice water or go bear hunting with a switch. They are fearless against powerful interests and confident that while we may lose a battle we will win the war. Texas lawyers have gotten some of the largest verdicts in American jurisprudence history both in our state and others. But our history and i tradition is not measured by those notable accomplishments. The code of the Texas trial lawyer lives all over our state and is reflected in smaller cases in what might be in comparison more modest results. Our lawyers’ uniqueness derives from our unrivaled history. Texas takes its name from the Tejas Indians, an indigenous people whose name is translated as “friendly.” In the Lone Star state there is no such thing as a quick trip to the grocery store because someone is sure to strike up a conversation with you in the checkout line, whether they know you or not. They wave hello as you pass them in traffic whether you are in your neighborhood or the back roads. With friendliness comes respect and you better show it when picking a jury. It goes back to the cowboy code “You never shoot first, hit a smaller man or a woman, or take unfair advantage.” Like Captain Woodrow Call in Lonesome Dove, we have a vehement intolerance of rude behavior in men. In 1990, wealthy oil man and rancher, Clayton Williams, ran for governor against Ann Richards. At a forum in Dallas, he met Richards who stuck out her hand and said, “Hello Claytie.” He violated the cowboy code that is deeply ingrained in every Texan and refused to shake her hand. In that instant he lost the election. Texans are taught to be polite to everyone. We say “Yes Sir” and “No Mam” to children. It may be a term of respect reserved for elders in other parts of the country, but we extend it to everyone. I believe one of the advantages I had as a trial lawyer was going into active duty as an enlisted man two days after I finished the bar exam. If serving as the lowest of the low in military service demands anything, it teaches humility and respect. I didn’t go to work at the big firm thinking I was now special because I had a bar card. How could I? I had grown up so poor that if a ticket around the world cost a dollar I could not have made it to Oklahoma. My only path to becoming a lawyer was to live at home and go to the local law school. The University of Houston Law School was founded in 1947 primarily for men returning from service after World War II and later Korea. ii Most of the GI Bill students were married and working. I worked at night, went during days or worked days and went at night. This is not to say we were not graduating some top hands. Several of those early graduates went on to high profile legal careers like legendary criminal defense lawyer Richard “Racehorse” Haynes and Wendell Odom, who served as the chief justice of our highest level criminal appeals court for 13 years. But we were not considered a “top” law school at that time. We knew any success after we graduated would have to be earned. I was only the 3rd U of H Law graduate in our history to be hired by a large law firm. Many of the new lawyers at the big firm came in with elitist ideas having graduated from prominent law schools on the East Coast or one of the big name schools in Texas. From our discussions, it was obvious that I knew as much, if not more, about Texas law and procedure than their big name law schools had given them. Still, I knew as much about handling real world legal issues as a city dude knew about breaking a bronc. I told the secretaries, “Mam, you know more than I do and I will be looking for you to keep me out of trouble.” Later, I would learn that because of this I was their favorite young lawyer. It is a lesson I try to teach my law students and young lawyers trying to find their way. Be humble, be respectful, and always be courteous. Quiet modesty will inspire loyalty, commitment, and zeal, not only with those who may work with you, around you, or under you, but also with court personnel and juries. When I started trying cases, our Harris County Civil Courthouse elevators were run by older ladies. We did not have automatic elevators. You got in the cab and told the friendly wrinkled face what floor you wanted. You knew you had arrived as a trial lawyer when the operator knew your name. The judges and older lawyers showed the way. They knew the operator’s name so you just followed their lead. Greet these delightful ladies by name a couple of times and they would ask for yours or ask someone else for it. It’s just the Texas way. Nothing impresses jurors and judges more than the elevator operator calling you by name after your, “Good morning, Inez, I need to go to the 4th floor, to the 152nd (District Court)”. I have tried cases against Texas lawyers as well as those from out of state. Some view their courtroom opposition with the disdain you iii would expect if you were someone who cut them off on the freeway that morning or had insulted their mother. This approach goes over with judges and juries about as well as a skunk at a church social. Texans not only expect respectful behavior; they demand it. Texas is the only nation to join the union. The origins of our state find Hispanic, whites, Indians, and others sacrificing themselves to liberate the land north of the Rio Grande from the tyranny of dictatorial government. As author Mary Lasswell observed: I am forced to conclude that God made Texas on his day off, for pure entertainment just to prove that diversity could be crammed into one section of earth by a really top hand. God chose a big section on his south forty. We still consider Texas the biggest state in the union when you don’t count ice. We have big ideas, big hearts, big cities, big counties, big rivers, big ranches, and big pickup trucks. We are bigger than most European countries. We measure distance not in miles but time. It’s about 12 hours to cross the state whether you are traveling north to south or east to west. You could drive through 10 states traveling south from Maine to North Carolina in the same time as it would take you to drive from our eastern to our western border. We have seven topographical regions with distinct weather patterns. Some parts are windy and dusty and so dry in summer that the trees are begging the dogs.