The first 72 hours after an arrest

An arrest in Starr County happens fast, and the seventy-two hours that follow are not waiting hours. They are working hours - for the defense lawyer, for the family on the outside, and for the prosecutor whose desk now has the file. This is what those hours look like when they go well.

Hour one: a phone call, not a fight

The single most important thing the family on the outside can do is call a lawyer before they call anyone else - including the bondsman, the in-laws, and the cousin who took criminal procedure once. The lawyer’s first job is information: where is your person, what is the charge, what is the bond posture, when is the magistration scheduled.

Hour twelve: magistration and bond

Within twenty-four hours of arrest, a magistrate sees the defendant and sets a bond. Bond is not random. It is a calculation - sometimes a generous one and sometimes a punishing one - and a lawyer who is in the building, with the magistrate, with the right information about your roots and your record, changes that calculation.

Hour forty-eight: the conversations you should not have

Jail calls are recorded. Every one of them. So are visitation rooms in many facilities, and so is the back seat of any patrol vehicle. Talk to your lawyer. Talk to your lawyer’s investigator. Do not - under any circumstance - talk facts on a recorded line.

Hour seventy-two: discovery and a plan

By the end of the third day a good defense team has filed initial discovery requests, identified the prosecutor assigned to the case, and begun mapping the file. Mapping the file is everything: it is the difference between guessing and knowing, and the difference between a quick resolution and a slow surprise.