Defending A Sexual Assault Case In Houston

One of the biggest challenges as a Houston Criminal Defense Attorney is defending a sexual assault case.The reason being is when picking a jury for this type of case most people are uncomfortable wih the issues that are going to be discussed. Additionally, when picking a jury there are always a few people that have been victims of sexual assault or have a family member that have been a victim. When discussing this issue publicly the person becomes highly emotional putting me in an awkward positioin and potentially "poisining" the rest of the jury panel. Fortunately, they recognize that they will not be a "fair" jury in this type of case. At the end of the day, picking a jury is a misnomer. What really happens is that people are disqualified for different reasons and the first twelve that are not excluded or "struck" by the prosecutor and me are the ones that get to sit as a jury. For example, last week I was picking a jury that went to the last person on the panel to become jurors because so many of the jury panel members had issues with this type of case.