TCDLA Shames Its Legends

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Every year for fifteen years the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association has traded on the name of Texas criminal-defense legend Stuart Kinard with its “Stuart Kinard Advanced DWI Seminar.” Stuart is remembered for these words:

Protecting those of the Lord’s children who have fallen short of perfection from the wrath of those who believe they have attained it.

(Poster offered for sale, without any apparent sense of irony, by the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association.)

Houston criminal-defense legend Mike Ramsey’s professional motto was “Who god forsakes, I defend.” (I’ve thought about having it translated to Latin and adopting it as our family motto.)

I have sought to live by these sentiments during the half of my life so far I’ve spent as a criminal-defense lawyer. I wrote, more than thirteen years ago:

In criminal court you can fight for people against the government, or you can fight for the government against people. There is no third way.

To me, the criminal-defense bar stands …