Counties are implenting "no refusal" zones in parts of the county where

they believe persons may be driving or boating  under the influence of alcohol.

The "no refusal" message is in reference to a person being intimidated into providing a breath or blood specimen to a

police officer upon request.

If you have been arrested for DWI or BWI in Dallas, Tarrant, Rockwall, Collin, Kaufman, or Wise county this weekend, and told that you "can't refuse"

Call the Law Offices of A. Clay Graham for a free consultation. 

For more information about DWI, go to Clay's DWI Facts page at http://www.defendingyourliberty.com/dwi-faq-dallas 

The Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee will hold a public hearing on May 20 at 1:30

to consider increasing the penalty range for Intoxication Assault.

Currently, Intoxication Assault is a third degree felony, which carries a range of punishment from two to ten years in prison.

The elements of Intoxication Assault are the same as for a charge of Driving While Intoxicated,

with the additional element being that if a person commits DWI and,

 while doing so causes seriously bodily injury to another person.

Under HB 1199, which is being considered by the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, an intoxication assault charge

would be increased to a second degree felony, increasing the range of punishment to from two to twenty years if

bodily injury from a DWI results in causing traumatic brain injury, or a permanent vegetative state to another person.

   If you have been charged with Intoxication Assault, contact the Law Office of A. Clay Graham.

Clay's combined experience as a nurse and attorney will assist you in understanding the medical documents, and injury claims that are critical

to the state making a case against you for intoxication assault, and give you the defense you need to challenge this very serious offense.  

The Texas House of Representatives passed legislation that would require all law enforcement agencies in Texas to have a written policy to follow

when administering photo and live line-ups to victim/witnesses for identification of perpetrators.  The reform bill calls for agencies to adopt the

provisions as set out in the bill, or substantially similar to those provisions, which closely follow the "best practices" outlined by the

Department of Justice in 2000.

"The wheels of justice turn slowly. This reform will grease the wheels a bit to ensure a procedure that comports with what a criminally accused

is constitutionally guaranteed; fundamental fairness." said Corey Session, policy director for The Innocence Project of Texas.

Currently, twelve agencies in more than eight hundred in Texas follow best practices.

The legislation will also guide judges in determining admissibility of eyewitness identification as evidence against an accused, particularly when identity is

a critical aspect of the case.  The current landscape of the rule of law for eyewitness identification prohibits a procedure that is "so impermissibly

suggestive as to give rise to a substantial likelihood of irreparable misidentification." (See, Simmons v. United States, 1968)

The main question regarding eyewitness identification under current case law is whether the identification is reliable, which is determined by

the court according to 1) the opportunity of the witness to view the suspect at the time of the crime; 2) the witness' degree of attention;

3) the accuracy of the witness' prior description of the suspect; 4) the level of certainty demonstrated at the confrontation; and

5) the time that has elapsed between the crime and the confrontation.

To read the text of HB 215, go to http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/BillLookup/BillNumber.aspx   

and write "HB 215" in the window to the right of Bill Number, and select ENTER.

Johnny Pinchback, 55, is the twenty-second person to be exonerated through DNA evidence

 in Dallas County since 2001.

Pinchback maintained his innocence in 1984, but a jury found him guilty of aggravated sexual assault

of two female victims, and sentenced him to 99 years.

Pinchback's conviction was based largely on mistaken eyewitness identification of him as the

perpetrator by the two adolescent female victims, who had been bound together at the ankles and

sexually assulted.

According to Innocence Project of Texas policy director, Corey Session, mistaken eyewitness

identification is the leading cause of wrongful conviction in Texas.

"This travesty is further evidence that the State of Texas should require all law enforcement agencies

in all Texas jurisdictions to follow formal, written eyewitness identification procedures, such as those in

current practice with the City of Dallas Police Department."

An Eyewitness identification bill is currently pending before the legislature, which would enlist the very

procedures to which Session refers.

Dallas is only one of very few jurisdictions in Texas that follows the "best practices" as outlined by the

Department of Justice in 2000, based upon research by Gary Wells, the leading expert in the United

States  on eyewitness identification and memory.

Pinchback is represented by Innocence Project of Texas chief staff attorney, Natalie Roetzel, and

former Innocence Project of Texas case director, Austin attorney, Jason Partney.

Roetzel and Partney investigate Pinchbacks casefor over two years, and also employed assistance from

Dallas exoneree James Woodard, who also spent 27 years incarcerated for a crime he did not commit.

For more information about the Innocence Project of Texas, go to www.innocenceprojectoftexas.org

Pinchback will be released today on bond through the

Dallas Criminal District Court #2, Judge Don Adams presiding.

Pinchback will then anticipate a formal opinion declaring him "actually innocent" from the Texas

Court of Criminal Appeals later this summer.