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RememberingJudge Mace Thurman(1918–2009)“In 1972, when any amount of marijuana went from up to life in prison to the sentencing structure we have now,a very cute coed from San Antonio came blowing up I-35 through San Marcos at about 100 mph. A SMPD gavechase, but soon burned up his engine. Another SMPD gave chase with the same result. Then a third burned up. (Ithink that may have been all the SMPD’s cars at the time.) Someone radioed ahead and asked APD to make thestop. The coed was stopped around Riverside and IH-35 and held there until SMPD showed up. Probably becauseit took them a while to find an operable car, they didn’t show up at the scene until maybe an hour after the stop.Of course, they found a couple of joints and filed felony POM charges. At the suppression hearing we arguedunreasonable detention. To our utter amazement, Thurman granted the Motion to Suppress (perhaps the first andonly time?).32 VOICE FOR THE DEFENSE October 2009
Not long thereafter, a couple of guys from New Jersey with vowels at the end of their names were stoppedon I-35 with a U-Haul full of marijuana.For reasons I can no longer remember, they were detained on the side of the road for a very long time (no sniffdogs then—perhaps they were seeking a warrant?). Anyway, at the suppression hearing we made the sameunreasonable detention argument. Motion to Suppress denied.In the hallway behind the courtroom, this still-naïve baby lawyer said, “But judge, don’t you rememberthe cute coed’s case from just a few months back?”Thurman’s response, and I quote, “Can’t you just see the Headlines: Thurman Turns Dopers Loose!””Thus marked the end of my age of innocence.Ken Houp“About 20 years ago I’d taken the morning off to prune a peach tree in my back yard. Bill White, my law partnerat the time, said he was out of town, which could have meant anywhere doing anything other than practicinglaw. White was the one who had a case on Mace’s docket that needed resetting, so he sent our law clerk, SamBassett, over to reset the case. Mace was holding his usual morning get-together with Brittain, Edwards, maybeRip Collins or Laird Palmer—anyone who had a penchant for being a serial liar and got past Joy (whose desk wasjust outside Mace’s chambers). They were simply rehashing the very hyperbolic stories they’d told each other theday before. Sam stuck his head in the door and meekly said he was there to get a case reset for Mr. White. Maceopined that he did not know Mr. Bassett, or that White and I had a new lawyer and he thought it rude that we hadnot brought Sam by to introduce him. Sam then told Mace that he was actually only a law clerk, still in school.Mace, relying on his well-practiced histrionics, told Sam that this would simply not do, that a law clerkcould not carry out this type of important business. And his Greek chorus of coffee-stained lawyers chimed inabout the terrible breach of decorum that all had just witnessed. Mace then said that Mr. Bassett would needto get Mr. Allison over there to handle the case. I was pissed, so I just came to court in blue jeans and a dirtyT-shirt because I was mad at Mace. He proceeded to make me sit in the jury box for the next four hours under thewatchful eye of the bailiff. He finally had the bailiff go get me his sports coat and granted the continuance.Steve “Hollywood” Edwards had a very similar experience—sitting in the box and finally being givenMace’s coat. The issue then was about the payment of some fine or fees from one of Steve’s clients. Mace had lefthis checkbook in his jacket coat, so Hollywood, without missing a beat, pulled Mace’s checkbook out of his coatand told him that the costs would be no problem, then proceeded to write him a check on his own checkbook.According to Edwards, one of Austin’s better legal raconteurs, Mace was speechless. Wish I’d been there. I doubtI could have pulled that one off, but Edwards apparently did it without so much as a smile, until both of them”finally dissolved in giggles. I’m sure the ADA standing there was absolutely terrified.Bill Allison“April 26, 1978, was not a good day for two Travis County District Judges in the Supreme Court of Texas. MaceThurman was maced in Strobel v. Thurman, 565 S.W. 2d 238 (Tex. 1978), and Judge Jim Dear’s ruling onessentially the same issue in the family law area also was looked upon with disfavor by a unanimous SupremeCourt a few pages earlier in the Southwestern Reporter. Trader v. Dear, 565 S.W. 2d. 233 (Tex. 1978). Inthat era, Judge Blackwell and Judge Thurman also heard civil cases. Both life and the law were simpler, or so itseemed.October 2009 VOICE FOR THE DEFENSE 33
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