Criminal Law Review

The interesting thing about sexual harassment and other civil rights, is that it has been illegal since 1964 to discriminate on the basis of sex, national origin, age, color, race or religion. Back then, and over the intervening years, while people paid this concept lip service, not a lot of people actually did anything about it. Victims, in particular, were not prone to speaking up for themselves and sexual harassment continued behind closed doors and unreported, tolerated because someone needed a job.

Sexual harassment is very much about power and control and those that choose to go this route with their employees need to be stopped in their tracks, taken down a peg or two. This type of behavior is not acceptable under any circumstances in the 21st century.

Federal sexual harassment law is dealt with in one of two categories. The first is Quid Pro Quo and the second is referred to as Hostile Sexual Environment. In simple terms, the hostile sexual environment comes about when unwelcome sexual conduct ruins the work atmosphere. It permeates everything a person does, affects work performance, and creates an offensive environment at all company functions - in the actual workplace and at gatherings.

There are certain types of harassment that are considered in the hostile sexual environment category, and they include vulgar sounds, vulgar statements, indirect sexual remarks, obvious sexual conduct, abusive language, and very sexually explicit graffiti, pinups or jokes. One of the requirements to make a case of a hostile sexual environment is that the behavior complained of happens repeatedly and is considered to be unwelcome.

The most important thing to remember is that it makes no difference what the harasser thought they were doing - as in they thought it was flattering. The only person’s point of view in these circumstances is the victim’s. If they feel it is unwelcome behavior, then it is harassment - period!

In cases like this the whole company may come under scrutiny and in some instances it is not unexpected that courts will hold employers liable in sexual harassment cases that involved vendors, customers, supervisors and other employees.

If you feel you have been or are a victim of sexual harassment in the workplace, contact a qualified sexual harassment attorney immediately and discuss the details of your potential case. Only a competent attorney is able to help you get through the landmines of a sexual harassment case.

Capital murder is killing a cop during the lawful discharge of his or her duty; or killing while committing another felony such as kidnapping, robbery, assault, arson or killing for money (call this murder for hire).

Texas has three classifications of murder - capital murder, murder manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. Murder is intentionally or knowingly causing the death of another person or intending to cause serious bodily injury, but it results in death. It is classed as a first-degree felony and is punishable by 5 years to 99 years or life in prison.

The next class is manslaughter, and this is charged if you recklessly cause the death of somebody. It is usually classed as a second-degree felony and is punishable with a sentence ranging from 2 to 20 years.

Since the classifications are not always that clear, nor likely was your intent clear when the murder happened, this is the crucial time to contact a highly qualified board certified criminal defense attorney. Don’t say a word to anyone and head for the phone to make that call. Only your lawyer needs to hear what your circumstances are in order to mount a viable defense.

Don’t guess what charge you may be facing. Pick up the phone and call an expert criminal defense lawyer. This may be the smartest thing you will ever do if you wish to retain your freedom.

Since criminal law is such a mixed bag at the best of times, spending time trying to figure out how to beat the system if you have been charged with a serious crime won’t do you a lot of good. This is your lawyer’s job, and this is also why you are told to not say anything to anyone until you have spoken to a lawyer. What you say to your attorney may make all the difference in the world between doing time or being set free.

Rape seems to be a crime that everyone knows about, knows what it means, and what happens when someone gets charged with it — but do they really? Rape is actually a legal term and it is subject to various definitions in many jurisdictions.

If you are charged with rape, immediately contact a criminal defense attorney and find out precisely what you are being charged with, as rape may be defined either in a very narrow manner or on the opposite end of the spectrum, extremely broad. To say that this area of the law is somewhat confusing is an understatement.

Those jurisdictions where rape fits into a very narrow definition normally prosecute rape only as being committed by a man against a woman, and there must be penetration with the penis. If there is no penetration, there is no rape. By extension, there would also be no rape charges for a man raping another man, nor any thought given to women raping.

Those parts of the country where the rape definition is a great deal wider, will charge rape as ANY penetration of a woman by a man. The broad expansion of this definition means that sexual assaults may also be charged as rapes, and by extension any man who penetrates a woman orally or anally may also be charged. These charges would not stand a chance according to the first narrow definition of rape.

These two examples of rape definitions are merely the tip of the iceberg and may also include forced penetration with a penis or other objects, and that means rape charges would then be applicable to women. With this type of a definition, any “person” against another “person” could then commit a rape.

As you may have guessed, with such wide variables involved in defining rape, any given jurisdiction’s rape statistics are going to be skewed due to their method of reporting. This is one of the reasons why trying to figure out the national stats for rape is almost impossible.

In all instances where you are faced with a rape charge, or think you may be charged with rape, contact a knowledgeable criminal defense attorney. You need to know what the law is in your particular jurisdiction and your lawyer needs to know precisely how you have been charged in order to prepare a defense.