Criminal Law

'Time running out for Driver Responsibility Program amnesty' - 54,000+ now rid of surcharges

Posted on March 03, 2011
Just got this press release from the Department of Public Safety:Time running out for Driver Responsibility Program amnesty Of the 713,444 people who are eligible to participate in the Driver Responsibility Program amnesty, only 54,035 (about 7.5 percent of the total) have signed up so far...

Texas 10-12K prison beds short under Senate, House budgets, eyewitness ID clears committee

Posted on March 03, 2011
Mike Ward at the Austin Statesman had good coverage of Tuesday's Senate Criminal Justice Committee hearing, where I spent my day (on behalf of the Innocence Project of Texas) waiting to testify on legislation to require law enforcement agencies to create policies on eyewitness identification procedures and authorize a statewide model policy implementing best practices...

Bill filed to merge juvenile justice agencies

Posted on March 01, 2011
Reports the Statesman's Mike Ward:A House bill filed this afternoon would abolish the Texas Youth Commission and the Texas Juvenile Probation Commission and create a new agency to oversee most of the state?s youth corrections programs.House Bill 1915 is the first merger bill filed this legislative session after such a move was recommended earlier by the Sunset Advisory Commission, as a way to streamline and improve juvenile justice in the state...

Blackburn: 'We have created a permanent class of underperformers in criminal defense cases'

Posted on March 01, 2011
The State Bar's Standing Committee on Legal Services to Poor in Criminal Matters has just released a new set of Performance Guidelines for Non-Capital Criminal Defense Representation (pdf), which are particularly focused on heretofore largely absent standards for indigent defense...

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Ellis: DA used forensic chairmanship to 'seize power,' 'thwart the will' of the commission, 'hide' its work from the public, increase 'bureaucratic bloat,' and 'slow its impressive progress to a crawl.' Otherwise he's doing great

Posted on March 01, 2011
State Sen. Rodney Ellis sent out a press release yesterday asking his fellow senators to reject Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley's nomination as chair of the Forensic Science Commission.  Failure of leadership at Texas Forensic Science Commission Raises Concerns   (Austin, Texas)//Senator Rodney Ellis (D-Houston) today urged the Texas Senate to reject the nomination of Williamson County District Attorney John Bradley for the remainder of his term as Chair of the Texas Forensic Science Commission...

TDCJ closure of 'Intermediate Sanction Facilities' exactly the wrong budget cutting strategy

Posted on March 01, 2011
Regular readers know TDCJ recently released its finally approved cuts to be implemented the current fiscal year (i.e., immediately, in the current budget cycle; see this pdf summary). And yesterday I linked to a story quoting the probation chief in Beaumont, who argued that cuts to diversion programming will boost much more expensive prison costs...

Bradley nomination for forensic chairman dead?

Posted on March 01, 2011
The Austin Statesman and other news outlets today reported that the Senate has severed Williamson County DA John Bradley's nomination from other members of the Forensic Science Commission because Democrats have enough votes to block him from being considered on the floor under the Texas Senate's 2/3 rule and have told the chair of the Nominations Committee they intend to do so...

Save counties money by reducing low-level pot offenses?

Posted on February 28, 2011
At tomorrow's House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee meeting, (see their agenda), one bill jumps out at me that would provide tremendous relief to local county jails an an influx of revenue to municipal and county coffers from increased fine revenue:  HB548 (Dutton) Reducing penalties for less than an ounce of marijuana...

'Prison budget cuts must not lead to more prisoners'

Posted on February 28, 2011
An editorial in the Beaumont Enterprise with the same title as this post IMO makes exactly the right point about the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's finalized cuts for the current fiscal year. They're okay with cuts to the food budget, but:We're not so enthusiastic about additional plans to cut 555 non-guard positions in the state prison system...

Questioning John Bradley: Forensic Science Commissioners up in Senate Nominations tomorrow

Posted on February 27, 2011
Governor Rick Perry's appointees to the Texas Forensic Science Commission are up in the Senate Nominations Committee tomorrow. Senators should use the forum to force Commission Chairman John Bradley to answer all the questions he's dodged in the past - especially about the ways in which he's delayed or shut down all the Commission's activities after his appointment in 2009...

Making the same old mistakes on asset forfeiture: Profit motive has no place in law enforcement strategy

Posted on February 26, 2011
Back during the fight to shut down Texas' network of Tulia-style drug task forces, one of the key revelations that discredited those now-defunct pseudo-agencies, and which prompted a new rule at the Department of Public Safety narcotics division, was that many were focusing their traffic interdiction efforts almost exclusively on southbound lanes, ignoring drugs going north in hopes of snagging more cash, of which they'd get to keep a portion under asset forfeiture laws...

Rigged Game: Prosecutors should shut down Austin City Council's 'walking quorum'

Posted on February 26, 2011
Slightly off topic, but my old pal Ken Martin at the Austin Bulldog has blown the lid off the reason I simply quit local work in Austin on police accountability issues or anything else: Votes at the Austin City Council are a rigged game, with special interests dictating outcomes behind the scenes and councilmembers deliberating and making decisions outside public processes that might give average citizens a chance for meaningful input...

Solutions and non-solutions to police brutality in Houston and elsewhwere

Posted on February 25, 2011
In Houston, police brutality incidents caught on video have spurred calls for a civilian review board (with "supboena power," of course), or perhaps a police monitor like we have here in Austin. But Paul Kennedy rightly wonders:I don't know what the solution is...

'As mental health cuts mount, psychiatric cases fill jails'

Posted on February 25, 2011
Brandi Grissom at the Texas Tribune/New York Times takes up a topic today which Grits has been harping on in a good article with the same title as this post.  Brandi has also posted an accompanying video on YouTube titled "Voices of the Mentally Ill...

You're nobody as a writer till you've been banned from TDCJ

Posted on February 25, 2011
"What do Jon Stewart, William Shakespeare, Sojouner Truth, Juan Williams, Jenna Bush, 50 Cent, John Grisham, Noam Chomsky, Stephen King, John Updike, Kurt Vonnegut, Jack Kerouac, Gore Vidal, George Orwell, Gustave Flaubert, George Carlin, and Sister Helen Prejean have in common?," asks the Texas Civil Rights Project? "They have each written at least one book banned in Texas prisons...

Why is creating new felonies the solution to every social problem? Immigration edition

Posted on February 25, 2011
Talk about cognitive dissonance: AP reports, "Bill would make hiring illegal workers a felony," while the Texas Tribune adds, "But maids are OK."As if for a second there's remotely enough extra space in Texas prisons or jails to create a new class of "criminal" businesses and entrepreneurs! It's absurd to even imagine...

Who wants to help Anthony Graves get compensation?

Posted on February 24, 2011
Lisa Falkenberg at the Houston Chronicle wonders why Comptroller Susan Combs won't give compensation to Anthony Graves, noting that, "Texas' compensation law seems tailor-made for a guy like Graves, who was finally freed after nearly two decades behind bars including 12 years on death row, when it became clear he was innocent in the savage Somerville murders of a grandmother and five children...

Ex-cop swayed jury deliberations in TYC sex abuse trial

Posted on February 23, 2011
Puzzled by the verdict, I was hoping some reporter would do juror interviews following John Paul Hernandez's acquittal this week following the TYC sex abuse trial in Lubbock, and Betsy Blaney from AP obliges with new insight into how a former police officer swayed jurors who at first considered Hernandez guilty ("Juror: Ex-cop swayed deliberations in Texas boys' prison sex case," Feb...

'Cost-Saving Strategies for Texas' Criminal and Juvenile Justice Systems'

Posted on February 23, 2011
Yesterday I received a fact-filled email from the Texas Criminal Justice Coalition addressing a variety of topics that may interest Grits readers. Here are some notable excerpts:Policy Solutions TCJC is thrilled to announce our third policy guide, Cost-Saving Strategies for Texas' Criminal and Juvenile Justice Systems...

TDCJ to cut 1.3% of spending in current fiscal year

Posted on February 23, 2011
Here's a new summary (pdf) of a 1.3% budget reduction at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice scheduled to be implemented during the current fiscal year. That's $40 million, down from the $75 million reduction state leaders had previously requested for FY 2010...

'Logged and Ordered': TV court dramas and public perceptions of the justice system

Posted on February 23, 2011
If you've ever wondered why the public has a skewed view of the criminal justice system and a flawed perception that criminals have "too many rights," look no further than the portrayal of the court system in the popular media. The reality is modern criminal courts have devolved into little more than plea mills, but presentations of the process in the popular media pretend that Atticus-Finch style courtroom drama is the norm instead of the rare exception...

'What does it take to reform a reformatory?'

Posted on February 23, 2011
I noticed a few stories related to juvenile justice and the Texas Youth Commission that may interest Grits readers: From the Beaumont Enterprise:What does it take to reform a reformatory?How offenders graduate from TYCScenes from a juvenile detention centerFrom the Texas Tribune:Youth advocates worry cuts will put more in prisonAlso, a piece of property bequeathed to the state for use by orphans may soon be transferred from TYC to the Department of Family Protective Services under legislation by Rep...

Previewing innocence legislation in House Criminal Jurisprudence today

Posted on February 22, 2011
Before I head up to the capitol this morning for the House Criminal Jurisprudence hearing on Chairman Pete Gallego's innocence legislation - including bills addressing eyewitness identification, recording interrogations in violent crimes, and allowing habeas relief when improvements in science might prove innocence - I thought I'd link to preview coverage from KXAN-TV in Austin (short ad at the beginning):Quite a few exonerees and their family members are in town for today's hearing, and there's already some evidence of bipartisan support on the committee...

Acquittal in second Pyote sex-abuse trial

Posted on February 22, 2011
Former TYC administrator John Paul Hernandez was acquitted of sex-abuse charges in Lubbock, reports AP:A former principal of a West Texas juvenile who claimed inmates lied when they told investigators that he had sexually assaulted them in darkened classrooms, closets and storage units was acquitted Monday of all charges against him...

Predictable as Bluebonnets in Spring: Biennial March of the 'Enhancements' Begins Anew

Posted on February 21, 2011
While I'm pleased to see some key innocence-related legislation up in tomorrow's House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee, I'm dismayed if unsurprised to see several so-called, Orwellian-termed "enhancement" bills (i.e., legislation creating new crimes or penalties, and/or increasing existing ones) also made the cut for the committee's first substantive hearing...

What's the one thing Leo Berman and John Whitimre agree on? Abolish the Driver Responsibility surcharge

Posted on February 21, 2011
Okay, there may be more than one (if you include stuff like compass directions), but the headline refers to the fact that both state Sen. John Whitmire and state Rep. Leo Berman have filed bills this session to abolish Texas' Driver Responsibility Surcharge...

Harris County pleads case for mental health, probation/diversion funds in state budget

Posted on February 20, 2011
While up at the capitol Friday on other business, I ran into some Harris County folks - including former Judge and current jail czarina Caprice Cosper, as well as Alan Bernstein and Dr. Mike Seale (who Grits readers may recall graciously led me on an extensive jail tour last year), along with a small gaggle of others - who'd come to Austin to brief legislative staff on the effects, in particular, of mental health cuts on the criminal justice system and the Harris County Jail...

On cops, taxes, immigration enforcement and Big Government Conservatism

Posted on February 19, 2011
The Governor decried "sanctuary cities" as a statewide emergency and legislators have scurried to file bills forcing local police and sheriffs to more directly confront immigration violations instead of merely identifying illegal immigrants after arrest...

Symposum celebrating freedom, justice and Barbara Jordan

Posted on February 19, 2011
Michele Deitch from the LBJ School emails to remind me that late registration is still open for an event in Austin on Monday filled with notable topics and speakers:REMINDER:  Please join us for this important and exciting Symposium on Monday featuring two of the country's leading criminal and juvenile justice experts--Marc Mauer from The Sentencing Project and Shay Bilchik from Georgetown University's Center for Juvenile Justice Reform and former head of OJJDP...

More coverage of zeroed out chaplaincy budget

Posted on February 19, 2011
Brandi Grissom at the Texas Tribune this week had a story following up on a budget angle covered on Grits last month: "Texas prison chaplains pray, plead for funds." She quotes "State Rep. Jerry Madden, R-Plano, chairman of the House Criminal Justice Committee, [who] spoke with the chaplains on Wednesday...

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