TCDLA received notice from the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals of the following grant awards for fiscal year 2015 (September 1, 2014, through August 31, 2015).
| Criminal Defense Lawyers Project | $1,003,887 |
| Innocence | $100,000 |
| Public Defender | $33,059 |
TCDLA will maximize these grants and conduct over 50 seminars in the coming year. Seminars will be held in 24 different cities around Texas. Working together with our public defender offices and our local criminal defense bars, we project we will train more than 5,500 lawyers, including members of their defense teams and office staff, in fiscal year 2015.
We thank the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals for having the trust and confidence in TCDLA to provide quality continuing legal education to criminal defense lawyers across Texas. We thank in particular Judge Hervey, who is oversight for the entire Judicial and Court Personnel Training Fund.
Special thanks to Judge Herb Evans (Austin) and Judge David Wahlberg (Austin), course directors for our Crimes of Violence seminar held in Austin in August. Thanks to their efforts we had 44 attendees.
Special thanks to Danny Easterling (Houston) and Grant Scheiner (Houston), course directors for the 12th Annual Top Gun DWI seminar held in Houston in August. Thanks to their efforts we had 223 attendees.
Special thanks to Kerri Anderson-Donica (Corsicana), Audrey Moorehead (Dallas), and George Milner III (Dallas), our course directors for the Cross-Examination seminar held in Dallas in September. Thanks to their efforts we had 132 attendees.
Special thanks to Harold Danford (Kerrville), Clay Steadman (Kerrville), and Kelly Pace (Tyler), our course directors for the Training Your Defense Team to Win seminar held in Fredericksburg. Thanks to their efforts we had over 50 attendees.
This was the first CCA-funded CDLP seminar focused on training the defense team, which includes contract private investigators, mitigation investigators, interns and externs, legal assistants, paralegals, social workers, or any person who might reasonably be appointed by a court to assist defense counsel (other than expert witnesses). Please bring your staff. This training will be held in the following locations:
| October 10, 2014 | Abilene |
| November 14, 2014 | Galveston |
| November 18, 2014 | McAllen |
| January 16, 2015 | Austin |
| April 17, 2015 | Waco |
| April 24, 2015 | Longview |
| July 9–10, 2015 | South Padre Island |
Special thanks to Jamie Gandara (El Paso), Dan Marquez (El Paso), Bill Cox (El Paso), and Rick Wardroup (Lubbock), our course directors for the Forensic Evidence & Expert Witnesses seminar held in El Paso in September. Thanks to their efforts we had 66 attendees.
Special thanks to Edwin Colfax (Austin), our course director for the Comal County Appointed Attorney Training: Effective Representation for Indigent Defendants, held in New Braunfels in September. Thanks to Edwin and the speakers efforts we had 30 attendees.
John Ackerman and Tony Vitz are the course directors for one of the most important training seminars that TCLDA conducts, the Roundtop IV Advanced Skills Training—Cross-Examination seminar. This intensive five-day course is designed to improve counsel’s communication with members of the jury. It involves methods and techniques that John Ackerman and others have developed over the last 35 years. The training involves a component of self-exploration that experience shows improves and enhances the communication process. Thousands have benefited from this training over the years. Please go to our website or call the home office for more information.
Are you interested in forming a local criminal defense bar? Need help getting organized? Please contact Susan Anderson (Dallas), , or Laurie Key (Lubbock), , or Carmen Roe (Houston), , co-chairs of the TCDLA Affiliate Committee.
Good verdicts to all.
**In addition, Capital Assistance Attorney Rick Wardroup has participated in the following training hours:
100 attendees at Capital Trial College, 20 hours = 2,000 hrs;
60 attendees at Capital Voir Dire, 20 hours = 1,200 hrs;
120 attendees at CCP Ch. 38, 7 hours = 840 hrs;
80 attendees at MacCarthy’s Cross Exam Program, 15 hours = 1,200 hrs.
His direct teaching was two hours at the Capital Trial College, one hour at Capital Voir Dire, one half-hour at the Chapter 38 program, and one hour at the Cross Exam program. Rick was a course director for each of the above other than the Capital Voir Dire program.
