MEDIA REVIEWS

Legal Ethics & Texas Criminal Law Prosecution & Defense

By Edward L. Wilkinson
Texas District & County Attorneys
Association 2006
1210 Nueces
Austin, Texas 78701
(713) 474-2436
426 pages, $40.00

Reviewed by Don Rogers

While this book concentrates on legal ethics in the context of criminal law, it also actually presents a comprehensive general discussion of the ethical rules that may be of interest to all practitioners. The book consists of three parts containing a total of nine chapters.
Part I, containing Chapters 1 through 6, addresses ethical issues common to both prosecutors and defense attorneys. Those chapters discuss respectively (1) the use of false testimony, (2) privileged communications, (3) ethics and publicity in criminal trials, (4) conflicts of interest, (5) the advocate-witness rule, and (6) ethical concerns in special relationships existing between the lawyer and others with whom the lawyer interacts, including judges, jurors, witnesses, third parties, and fellow lawyers and legal assistants.
Part II, containing Chapters 7 and 8, addresses special ethical responsibilities of prosecutors. Those chapters discuss the prosecutor’s special constitutional duties and ethical responsibilities under the State Bar Rules regarding such subjects as preservation and disclosure of evidence favorable to a defendant, knowing use of perjured testimony, prosecuting charges not supported by probable cause, assisting in custodial interrogation, and encouraging waiver of “important” rights by criminal de-fendants, among other things.
Part III, containing Chapter 9, addresses the constitutional and ethical responsibilities of defense attorneys to provide competent representation to criminal defendants. Appendix A of the book contains a copy of the Texas Disciplinary Rules of Professional Conduct.
The book extensively cites federal and Texas appellate court decisions concerning the ethical issues mentioned from both criminal and civil cases, which, when coupled with the universality of the ethical rules and the price, makes it a highly useful resource for criminal and civil practitioners.

Don Rogers is an assistant district attorney assigned to the Appellate Division of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. He is a member of the editorial board of The Houston Lawyer.

Internet for Lawyers
How to Use the Internet for Legal & Investigative Research – A Guide for Legal Professionals

By Carole A. Levitt & Mark E. Rosch
7th Edition, 2005
IFL Press
P.O. Box 1065
Culver City, CA 90232
205 pages, $59.95

Reviewed by Don Rogers

Internet for Lawyers is a highly useful publication acquainting legal professionals with the basics for utilizing the Internet for legal and investigative research of all kinds. The book initially acquaints readers with the Internet, the World Wide Web, and websites, and explains how those things are accessed by computer users through computer web browsers, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer Version 6, the most commonly used browser, and Netscape Communicator/Navigator. It then discusses and distinguishes assorted (1) search engines, such as Google (http://www.google.com), the overall favorite of the authors, and AltaVista (http://www.altavista.com), (2) meta-search engines, such as Dogpile (http://www.dogpile.com) and Hotbot (http://www.hotbot.com), which simultaneously submit inquiries to multiple search engines, and (3) directories and portals, which are search engines or sites comprised of links to information relevant to specialized subject matter areas, and their utilization for the purpose of searching the Internet for information about almost everything and everyone.
From there the book tells readers how to use the Internet for (1) investigative research pertaining to all types of information with respect to people, things, and concepts, and (2) substantive legal research. In that context, readers are provided with extensive summaries of a wide variety of private, academic, and federal and state governmental websites and databases, many of which may be used for research purposes without cost, and their web addresses or links. The book is worth the purchase price for just that information, if for no other reason.

Don Rogers is an assistant district attorney assigned to the Appellate Division of the Harris County District Attorney’s Office. He is a member of the editorial board of The Houston Lawyer.

Becoming Justice Blackmun

By Linda Greenhouse
Times Books, Henry Holt and Company, LLC
2005, 268 pages

Reviewed by Maxine Goodman

In Becoming Justice Blackmun, Linda Greenhouse uses the personal relationship between Harry Blackmun and Warren Burger to illustrate how the Supreme Court functioned during Chief Justice Burger’s reign and how Justice Blackmun came to author the Court’s opinion in Roe v. Wade. The friendship between Blackmun and Burger began in kindergarten; the two lived six blocks from each other in a working-class neighborhood in St. Paul, Minnesota. Blackmun served as Burger’s best man when Burger married in November, 1933. During their time together on the Supreme Court, the friendship dissolved. As Blackmun’s mother had warned, Blackmun joining the Court “inevitably changed” the friendship between Warren Burger and Harry Blackmun.
Greenhouse relies on Justice Blackmun’s internal Court memos, outlines and drafts of Court opinions, pros and cons lists, and childhood diary entries to tell the story of Blackmun’s journey to the Supreme Court. The book details Blackmun’s list-making rituals; he kept lists of “concerts attended, movies seen, books read,” and he maintained a “chronology of significant events” during his time as a Supreme Court justice. She describes how Blackmun struggled through Harvard Law School, graduating near the top quarter in his class (his rank was 120 out of 451). She also tells of his difficulties adjusting to the culture and politics of Washington, D.C. and the Supreme Court. In sum, Greenhouse paints a picture of a jurist who was both confident and infinitely capable yet highly sensitive to criticism, especially from his fellow jurists.
In describing Justice Blackmun’s 24 years on the Supreme Court, Greenhouse focuses on his experiences deciding abortion and death penalty cases. Though Justice Blackmun is best known for his opinion in Roe v. Wade, the book’s description of his shift in philosophy regarding the death penalty is especially fascinating. As an Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals justice, Blackmun opposed the death penalty personally but thought the legislature, not the courts, should decide the punishment’s fate. By the end of his Supreme Court tenure, Justice Blackmun opposed the death penalty both personally and as a jurist, believing it could not be administered constitutionally. His dissent in Callins v. Collins (1994) contains the now-famous line: “From this day forward, I no longer shall tinker with the machinery of death.”
Lawyers and law students hoping to better understand judicial philosophies and the workings of appellate courts as well as non-lawyers eager to better understand the United States Supreme Court will benefit from reading Greenhouse’s book. Because Greenhouse writes Becoming Justice Blackmun from the very human perspective of Justice Harry Blackmun, the book provides a unique, though at times disconcerting, account of Justice Blackmun and of the inner workings of the United States Supreme Court.

Maxine Goodman is a professor at South Texas College of Law. She is a member of the editorial board of The Houston Lawyer.

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