In a criminal case, the state, through a prosecutor, initiates the suit, while in a civil case the victim brings the suit. Persons convicted of a crime may be incarcerated, fined, or both. Criminal defense attorneys represent clients who have been accused of committing a crime, and defend their rights at each stage of a misdemeanor or felony case -- from an arrest to an appeal after conviction. Criminal defense attorneys may be hired privately or provided by the government (called "public defenders").
Freer is a city in Duval County, Texas, United States. The population was 3,241 at the 2000 census. The city and county are heavily Hispanic in ethnicity and Democratic in voting history. From the 1930s-1960s, the county was dominated by the political boss, called a patron in South Texas, George Parr, a supporter of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson. Parr's influence waned thereafter, and he committed suicide at his Los Harcones ranch in 1975. Like Sweetwater, the seat of Nolan County in West Texas, Freer holds an annual rattlesnake roundup in March. The first oil well in Texas was drilled in Freer in 1860, a year after the discovery in Titusville, Pennsylvania, but it was unproductive. In 1907, oil was again discovered in Duval County, six years after Spindletop near Beaumont.