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HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL
Options limited after
entering guilty plea
Dear Mr. Rockefeller,
My brother pleaded
guilty to robbery ear
lier this week. Is there any
way to appeal the plea? His
attorney told him to enter a
guilty plea, even though he
did not do anything.
Dear Reader, I wish you
had written me “before”
your brother had entered his
guilty plea, as his rights are
now very limited.
.An “appeal” is a generic
litigation term describing
an attempt to review a trial
court’s erroneous ruling.
In some cases, you can
appeal before a jury trial,
although some instances
require you to wait for the
case to end, before you can
do so.
An appeal does “not”
include a right to “retry” the
facts of a case or to request a
different result because you
disagree with the outcome;
you have to show that pro
ceedings were “tainted” in
some fashion.
I cannot describe all
potential circumstances for
an appeal in this column;
but, here are a few simple
non-exclusive examples: the
judge refused to allow certain
questions asked of potential
juror in voir dire; the judge
improperly instructed the
jury at the end of the trial;
a judge improperly excluded
evidence; an attorney vio
lated an ethical rule; there is
a substantial likelihood that
newly discovered evidence,
not known to the party wish
ing to use it, would have
resulted in a different jury
verdict . . . these are just a
Foot problems can be serious
Neuropathy is a con
dition that makes, it
hard for individuals
to feel injuries or sore spots.
Diabetes can damage nerves
in your feet and also cause
neuropathy. Diabetes chang
es the blood flow making
the process of foot healing a
slow one.
Due to the slow healing
process, minor problems of
infection can quickly turn
into major problems of infec-
New law will help families buy safer cars
State Point Media
Finding a vehicle that’s
safe for your family is about
to get a lot easier thanks
to a new federal regulation
requiring safety ratings on
the window stickers for all
new cars, mini-vans and
sport-utility vehicles.
The new rule will go
into effect in 2007 and will
require that rating infor
mation from the National
Highway Traffic Safety
Administration’s be dis
played on part of the window
sticker on new cars begin
ning with the 2008 model
year.
Dubbed the “Stars on Cars
Rule,” the requirement will
help consumers measure
a vehicle’s safety informa
tion by the number of safety
stars on the sticker.
The new vehicle price
Expert: U.S. can’t insulate itself in oil situation
By Mark Coddington
Morris News Service
With the United States
consideringsanctionsagainst
Iran because of its defiance
over its nuclear program,
concerns about where the
United States gets its oil and
what effect it might have on
oil prices are mounting.
But one expert on the glob
al oil market says all that
worry may be fruitless. In
fact, it makes no difference
whether the United States
chooses to buy oil from vola
tile countries such as Iran,
said Robert Kaufmann,
a professor at Boston
University’s Center for
Energy and Environmental
Studies.
“There’s nothing the U.S.
can do to kind of insulate
itself from this big pool,
this one world pool of oil,”
Kaufmann said on Thursday
few.
Your brother’s guilty plea
does not really involve the
judge; the only possible
error would be between
your brother and his attor
ney. Hence, it is not the type
of error you can directly
“appeal.”
So, your brother cannot
“appeal” his conviction. He
would have two options. He
could ask the judge to per
mit him to
withdraw
his guilty
plea - but,
these are
only rare
ly granted
and he has
a limited
amount
of time to
make this
request.
ii
Jim Rockefeller
Columnist
Or, he could file a “habeas”
petition, which is kind of
like an appeal, even though
it is not one. Either way, the
“appeal” would actually be
of the trial court’s refusal to
let him withdraw his guilty
plea.
A “habeas” action flows
from a criminal defendant’s
constitutional rights to an
attorney - if there is a poten
tial for jail time, there is a
guaranteed right to an attor
ney at every “critical stage”
of a criminal case; this is the
reason for court appointed
attorneys. Embedded in this
right to an attorney is the
right to a “constitutionally”
adequate (not a good one,
just barely adequate) attor
ney.
This standard is “extreme-
tion lead
ing to the
hospital.
Listed
below are
the signs
that foot
pro b -
lems can
include:
■ 1.
Red spots,
blisters,
V Jmlh
Dr. Jokhai
Columnist
The Foot Doctor
corns, or Calluses
stickers will contain NHTSA
safety ratings in three areas
- front and side crash and
non-destructive rollover
tests. All three tests use the
five-star rating, with five
stars being the safest.
“By making safety a sell
ing point, it is my hope that
this rule will encourage
the faster development of
these kinds of technologies,”
Nicole Nason, National
Highway Traffic Safety
Administrator.
While this safety informa
tion is already accessible on
the Internet at www.safecar.
gov, the new rule will make
it a lot easier for car buyers
- as all they will have to do is
go from car to car and com
pare the numbers of safety
stars on the window.
“This measure just makes
sense. By placing safety
at an energy conference spon
sored by the Foundation for
American Communications,
a nonprofit journalists
group.
If the United States were
to refuse to buy oil from a
country such as Iran, he said,
that country would simply
sell that oil somewhere else
at a similar price, negating
the move’s intended political
and economic effects.
And if a major disruption
affected a volatile country’s
oil supply, an inescapably
interdependent global oil
economy would ensure that
the United States would be
vulnerable, regardless of
whether it bought oil from
that country, he said.
That’s because oil pric
es are dependent far less
on the United States’ oil
supply than on a complex
global market led by the
Organization of Petroleum
ly” low; in one case, a Texas
attorney who slept through
his client’s trial was consid
ered “adequate.” Go figure.
Hence, it takes some power
fully outrageous conduct for
to fall below this “adequate”
standard.
Entering a guilty plea is
obviously a “critical stage.”
Your brother could succeed
with a habeas action if his
attorney was “ineffective”
at this stage, such as his
attorney providing him with
significantly faulty advise.
For instance, if his attor
ney promised him that he
would not receive any prison
time if he pleaded guilty,
that might qualify. Or, if his
attorney failed to fully inves
tigate his defense or tell him
about some solid motions he
could have filed, that might
be ineffective assistance.
Still, this is a huge uphill
fight that is rarely won.
Hence, probably the only
viable hope he has is if
the judge (in a rare depar
ture in favor of letting the
result stand) would grant
his request to withdraw his
guilty plea and start all over
... a very unlikely event.
Warner Robins attorney
Jim Rockefeller is the for
mer Chief Assistant District
Attorney for Houston County,
and a former Assistant State
Attorney in Miami. Owner
of Rockefeller Law Center,
Jim has been in private
practice since 2000. E-mail
your comments or confi
dential legal questions to
ajr@rockefellerlawcenter.
com.
■ 2. Drainage on your
sock
■ 3. Dry, cracked, or scaly
skin
■ 4. Thick, yellow, or
ingrown toenails
■ 5. Slow-healing sores
■ 6. A tingling, cold, or
burning sensation
■ 7. Numbness
■ 8. Red streaks or chang
es in skin color
Next week: Healthy skin
versus infected skin
ratings directly on new car
window stickers, consumers
will have the ability to make
more informed decisions
right there on the car sales
lot,” said Ohio Senator Mike
DeWine, who sponsored
the legislation creating the
“Stars on Cars” program.
The new star ratings will
join other information on
car pricing stickers already
required by law - such as
cost, fuel economy, and vehi
cle features.
If you want to review a
car’s safety ratings before
the new rule goes into effect,
visit www.safecar.gov, a gov
ernment Web site that offers
detailed safety information
on all sorts of car makes and
models dating back to 1990.
This information can be use
ful when evaluating the pur
chase of a new or used car.
Exporting Countries, which
produces about 42 percent of
the world’s oil supply.
Formed in 1960 to slow
the decline in oil prices, the
11-nation OPEC has long
dictated the oil market by
determining how much of its
capacity of oil to produce.
But in recent years, OPEC
has used more and more of
its capacity, giving it less
power to curb prices when
they jump, Kaufmann said.
The United States has lost
power to control the volatile
oil market as well, because
it has little oil in reserve to
insulate itself against price
fluctuations. The result,
Kaufmann said, is that the
United States - and, to an
extent, even OPEC - has
been left at the mercy of a
dangerously unstable global
oil market, one that cannot
fix itself.
LOCAL
Releasing creativity
in your workforce
Do you sometimes
wonder where the
spark has gone in
your workforce? Wasn’t
each individual eager to
learn and perform when he
or she first came to work?
Over time, many individ
uals lapse into something
of a routine. For some, this
can involve quite a high
degree of complacency!
New achievements worthy
of celebration occur with
increasingly less frequency.
Work is conducted with a
boring repetition, some
times with little commit
ment and a cynical expecta
tion that the situation may
never be much better.
Do you think I am exag
gerating? Maybe this
doesn’t describe your work
place. Well, congratulations
to you, because you must be
doing some things right!
Do you know what you
are doing right? Is the cre
ativity in your workforce
intentionally nourished?
Are people who offer sug
gestions for improvement
complimented and invited
to take action on their sug
gestions?
Most leaders are not able
to answer these questions.
Many bosses have not
worked to develop relation
ships such that people feel
safe in offering suggestions
for improvement.
Further, nobody likes to
tell the boss bad news. So,
if the problem is one or
more behaviors of the boss,
for example, many of the
answers the boss receives
are really a sham. It’s easy
for a boss to not receive
honest feedback!
What’s a leader to do?
Consider having a com
petent outsider come in
and conduct an organiza
tional health assessment.
The consultant will offer
a number of questions
intended to elicit the hon
est opinions of the people
who do the work.
When I’m involved
in such an assessment,
I encourage the boss to
help design the questions.
That way, we penetrate
to learn what the leader
really wants to know.
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On a recent assessment,
two individuals talked
together after the on
site interviews and chose
to send some additional
thoughts. They had inter
esting ideas about how per
formance could improve in
their workplace.
I responded with a series
of blunt questions. “Have
you shared these ideas with
your bosses? If not, why
it k
Dennis Hooper
Leaders Building
Leaders
that these were demanding
questions. After all, these
two individuals had gone
out of their way to help
me understand what was
happening at their place of
business. And here I was
coming back to them, put
ting pressure on them for
having failed to share their
ideas with their bosses!
Their good ideas had not
occurred to them until I
asked my questions in the
interview. Nobody had
ever stimulated them to
think about their work in
quite that way. After hav
ing pondered awhile, they
had plenty of good ideas.
I pushed them hard to
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THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2006 ♦
not? If
you did
and you
saw
no evi
dence of
response,
what do
you think
ha p -
pened?”
I
acknowl
edged
F. Dennis Hooper
Certified
Leadership Development Coach
Building leaders and
organizations of excellence
1478) 988-0237 dhooper2@juno.com
Twin Set - $ 99 00
40.ueenfS.et - $ 159 00
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share their observations
directly with their bosses.
There was no need for those
ideas to come through me!
It is far better that they
receive the credit directly
for their creativity!
Is it necessary that some
one come in from the out
side to awaken this kind
of creativity in your work
force? Of course not! In
fact, your organization will
be better off if you are rou
tinely asking stimulating
and encouraging questions
yourself.
But maybe you’ve not
done that in awhile. Maybe
you’ve allowed things to
become just a little too rou
tine, even for you! Consider
doing something to shake
your workforce out of its
complacency. You’ll be glad
you did, and so will those
under your authority!
Dennis Hooper is a
Certified Leadership
Development Coach.
You can contact him at
dhooper2@juno.com.
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