Daily Archives: October 5, 2007

Slade elects not to testify

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slade%20100507.jpgThe defense rested Thursday in the criminal trial of former Texas Southern University president Priscilla Slade (previous posts here) without the defendant taking the stand in her own defense. Slade told the Chronicle that she felt “wonderful” about the conclusion of her defense, while defense counsel Mike DeGeurin explained on the courthouse steps that “the defendant never testifies if the state has not proven their case. That’s just a given rule.”
Maybe so, but as noted here and here in connection with a couple of other high profile cases, the decision not to testify in white collar criminal cases is risky. Juries in white collar cases expect to hear from the defendant, and when they don’t, they commonly hold against the defendant. That’s not it’s supposed to work, but that’s the reality. As the late Edward Bennett Williams used to advise his white collar criminal clients, “If you elect not to testify, then you better bring your toothbrush with you to the courthouse.”
The prosecution finished its rebuttal portion of its case on Thursday. The jury is off on Friday as the judge and lawyers finalize the jury instructions. Final arguments are scheduled to begin on Monday.

Primers for Stoneridge v. Scientific-Atlanta

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golfplated%20scales%20100507.jpgOral argument in the U.S. Supreme Court will take place next Monday on one of the most important business cases of our time — the Stoneridge Investment Partners v. Scientific-Atlanta case involving the issue of secondary liability for companies that do business with a company that commits securities fraud (previous posts here). As usual, Larry Ribstein lucidly explains the importance this case, which could have a material impact on the creation of wealth and jobs in America. This OpinionJournal editorial also does an excellent job of explaining the background of the case.
In anticipation of the oral argument, a couple of excellent webcasts of conferences are taking place this morning discussing the public policy and legal issues invovled in this important case. The Federalist Society and Case Western Reserve Law are sponsoring a conference at Case Western in Cleveland, which will include UCLA Law corporate law expert Stephen Bainbridge and Jim Copland, the director of the Center for Legal Policy at the Manhattan Institute.
Meanwhile, at 9 a.m. EDT, the American Enterprise Institute Legal Center for the Public Interest in Washington is hosting its own Stoneridge conference that will include as panelists former SEC chairman Harvey Pitt and AEI Legal Center director, Ted Frank.
If you are at all involved or interested in business law, there won’t be many better opportunites to earn CLE credit than watching one or both of these panel discussions.
Update: Point of Law.com provides this eight minute podcast of Jim Copland interviewing Richard A. Epstein on Stoneridge.
Update: The transcript of the oral argument is here and Case Western has provided this handy Stoneridge resource page providing a ton of useful information on the case.

Longhorn trepidation on the eve of Texas-OU Weekend

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cotton%20Bowl.jpegIt’s the annual Texas-OU Weekend in Dallas and with two straight Red River rivalry victories under their belt, one would think that the Texas Longhorns would be feeling reasonably confident coming into this year’s game.
Don’t count on it.
As noted in last week’s local football report, the Horns were manhandled by Kansas State at home after looking unimpressive through the first four games of the season. The loss hurled the Horns out of the Top 10 of the polls, although UT did retain a spot in at least this Top 10 poll.
Meanwhile, Longhorn fan Ida Mae Crimpton reports from her front porch in Elgin that all is not well in the Longhorn nation after the Kansas State debacle:

Well, things were so bad after last weekend’s loss to Kansas State that Mack didn’t even come out of his office to talk with the team after the game was over. So defensive coordinator Duane Akina took over for him. Coach Akina told the guys he was real proud of them except for “that first quarter Kansas State touchdown pass that Marcus (Griffin) should have stoppedÖand that 41 yard interception return for a touchdown that anybody on offense could have preventedÖand the 85 yard kick return that the punter should have stoppedÖand the 89 yard punt return that my grandmother could have stoppedÖand the 2 yard touchdown run in the fourth quarterÖand, oh yeah, those two field goals that nobody even tried to blockÖ” Then, I guess the lecture sort of snowballed because you could tell coach Akina was getting madder and madder because that knobby fat area on the back of his neck was swelling up and getting real red.
Then he asked Colt if he planned to play professional sports after graduation and when Colt said “yeah” coach Akina suggested that he might consider women’s professional soccer. Next, he turned to Jamaal who had been fiddling with his cell phone and asked him if he was having any personal problems or trouble with his studies (which brought a few snickers from the back of the teamÖ). Jamaal said “no sir” so coach Akina asked him why he was running like he was wearing flip-flops? At that point coach Akina asked if coach Davis had anything he’d like to say to the team, but he said he didn’t, or at least that’s what he might have said because it was hard to hear him over the sobbing coming from behind Mack’s office door.

Could all of this augur for a return to the days of Mack Brown’s Stoops Curse?
Tune in tomorrow at 2:30 p.m., CDT on ABC to find out.