Criminal Law

Texting ban ignores road dangers that are more common, just as risky

Posted on August 28, 2009
Utterly predictably, the Austin City Council yesterday unanimously approved moving forward with the creation of a ban on texting while driving, but there were some interesting tidbits in this morning's news coverage. According to the Austin Statesman:Council Member Bill Spelman asked whether the ban would apply to police officers, who have computers in their patrol cars...

At TDCJ, Wiccan is 'non-denominational'

Posted on August 27, 2009
Some readers may be interested in discussing the debate over an inmate in South Texas whose sued claiming he's being denied the right to perform Wiccan religious services. Reported the Brownsville Herald:Charles Roberts, 28, of Brownsville, alleges he has asked several times for religious books, pentagrams and a person to lead Wiccan services at the Texas Department of Criminal Justice?s Lopez Unit but has received no assistance from the prison?s chaplain...

Proposed Austin texting ban ignores commuters, reality, to get more revenue

Posted on August 27, 2009
Austin's City Council today will consider whether to ban texting while driving as well as a new law requiring a 3 foot separation between drivers and pedestrians, cyclists or other road users, the Austin Statesman reported this week. Councilmember Mike Martinez began floating the idea of a local texting ban last year but said he wanted to see how bills fared at the state Legislature first...

Corrupt Sheriff sentenced to five years for assisting drug traffickers

Posted on August 27, 2009
One of the Texas border Sheriffs who was receiving millions in grant funds from Governor Rick Perry's border security program was sentenced to more than half a decade in the federal hoosgow for conspiring with drug cartels to smuggle narcotics through his county...

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Did Judge Kevin Fine cross the line questioning a rape victim? Your answer may say a lot about you

Posted on August 26, 2009
I couldn't disagree more with Lisa Falkenberg's take on the much-ballyhooed instance of Harris County District Judge Kevin Fine ("After rapist convicted, judge grills the victim," Aug. 25), who Lisa criticized for asking questions about possible consent of a rape victim recently during the sentencing portion of a trial in which he would be required to set a penalty...

Why so little angst over Mexican decriminalizaiton of small drug amounts?

Posted on August 26, 2009
I wonder why Mexico's recent move to decriminalize small amounts of drugs, which passed with little controversy this summer, hasn't received the same howl of protest as when it was suggested a few years ago? Time magazine even suggests their new law "may set an example" for other nations...

New ABA ethics opinion requires more disclosure from prosecutors than constitutional obligations

Posted on August 26, 2009
Alexandra Natapoff at the Snitching Blog brings word of a recent but little-publicized American Bar Association opinion (pdf) defining the scope of prosecutors' ethical duty to disclose information favorable to the defense. As she describes it, the new rule:is more demanding than constitutional Brady disclosure requirements; it covers all information favorable to the defense, not just evidence; it is up to the defense, not the prosecution, to evaluate the utility of the information; the government must disclose information as soon as is reasonably practical, and the defendant cannot waive these rights or absolve the prosecutor of her disclosure duties...

A cost-benefit nightmare: One crime solved per 1,000 surveillance cameras

Posted on August 25, 2009
I've argued many times before that surveillance cameras in public spaces provide little crime fighting bang for the buck, often citing Britain's example. Now out of the UK comes this news, via the BBC, showing how little crime fighting benefit that nation has seen from its massive investment in CCTV:Only one crime was solved by each 1,000 CCTV cameras in London last year, a report into the city's surveillance network has claimed...

Shoddy forensics + jailhouse snitch = possible false conviction, execution in capital arson case

Posted on August 25, 2009
The Chicago Tribune reports that a consultant hired by the Texas Forensic Science Commission found the arson testimony that secured the conviction of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was later executed for a fire that killed his children, was shoddy and unscientific ("Cameron Todd Willingham: Expert says fire for which father was executed was not arson," Aug...

Harris County to DOJ Jail Monitors: Buzz Off

Posted on August 25, 2009
This deserves a full read and more extensive commentary when I have time, but for now let me just post the link: Via email, I learn that Harris County Attorney Vince Ryan today sent a 454-page response including exhibits (large pdf) to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, bitterly disputing claims by the DOJ Civil Rights Division that large numbers of deaths, poor healthcare, inadequate mental health services and a pattern of violence in the county jail violate inmates' constitutional rights...

USAA cancels insurance due to spousal incarceration

Posted on August 25, 2009
A reader sent me this account via email and I thought it was worth sharing (excerpted to protect the writer's identity):I don't know if you are familiar with USAA. It was originally the United States Army Automobile Association. It is now both an insurance and banking operation that is headquartered in San Antonio...

Harris jail building scheme an improper use of tax-increment financing

Posted on August 24, 2009
Voters rejected a new jail last year, but the Harris County Commissioners Court wants to shove one down their throat, anyway, reports the Houston Chronicle ("Deal on jail, stadium, Dome in homestretch," Aug. 24), using a tax-increment financing scheme:The city of Houston and Harris County are negotiating a deal that could pave the way for construction of a new soccer stadium, a new jail and the redevelopment of the Astrodome, according to officials taking part in the talks...

DPS spending millions on TDEX database while driver license lines lengthen

Posted on August 24, 2009
I'd mentioned over the weekend the Public Safety Commission's vote on Friday to revamp the Driver Responsibility surcharge to create amnesty and incentive programs. But a couple of other interesting items came up at the meeting that deserve Grits readers' attention...

Proliferation of police agencies problematic

Posted on August 23, 2009
The Austin Statesman today published a piece titled "A proliferation of police agencies in Texas" describing problems created by the growing number of licensed peace officers at tiny, specialized agencies with little oversight. Here's how it begins:The Texas State Board of Pharmacy, which licenses and disciplines pharmacists, has its own...

Needless pretrial detention main cause of Harris jail overcrowding

Posted on August 23, 2009
In the Houston Chronicle today, Lise Olsen has a story ("Thousands languish in crowded jail") focused on the overuse of pretrial detention for petty defendants. Here's how the story opens:More than half of the 11,500 inmates crammed into the Harris County Jail have not yet been found guilty of a crime but await their day in court confined with convicted criminals in conditions that repeatedly flunk state and federal safety inspections...

Dallas PD moves to sequential, blind lineups

Posted on August 22, 2009
Though legislation that would have required similar changes in eyewitness ID policies at all Texas police agencies died in the end-of-session meltdown in the House of Representatives, the Dallas Police Department is moving ahead with a "sequential blind" lineup for photo arrays shown to witness...

Public Safety Commission backs Driver Responsibility revamp

Posted on August 22, 2009
I must say, I've seldom been as pleased at being rejected as I was yesterday when the Texas Public Safety Commission formally voted to deny the Grits' peitition for rulemaking regarding creation of indigency, amnesty and incentive programs for the so-called "Driver Responsibility" fee...

DPS to propose its own Driver Responsibility "indigency" program alongside (instead of?) citizen petition

Posted on August 21, 2009
I'm headed up this morning for a meeting of the Texas Public Safety Commission to discuss the Driver Responsibility Program and Grits' recently submitted petition for rulemaking during their public comment period. (On good authority, I understand state Sen...

Get The Picture? Image conscious departments discipline cops

Posted on August 21, 2009
A couple of recent, thematically related items cracked me up.In the small, Southeast Texas town of Taft, a couple of officers will be disciplined but not terminated (after threats to do so and much media hoopla) for participating in a (very bad) faux gangsta rap video put out by some local wannabes...

"Earned time" in Texas not reducing costs as in other states

Posted on August 20, 2009
Yesterday I ran across a new report (July) from the National Conference of State Legislatures titled "Cutting Corrections Costs: Earned Time Policies for State Prisoners" (pdf), and was somewhat surprised to see Texas listed among states with supposedly more progressive policies for "earned time...

Schwarzenegger should follow Perry's lead on drug task force system

Posted on August 20, 2009
Counterintuitively, given that the state is in the midst of its worst fiscal crisis in decades, the California Emergency Management Agency yesterday approved (pdf) expanded funding for multi-jurisdictional drug task forces using new federal stimulus money, but judging from Texas' experience that's a bad decision...

Why Sharon Keller Must Go: In Her Own Words

Posted on August 20, 2009
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller testified yesterday that she would do nothing different if presented again with the same situation that caused the Commission on Judicial Conduct to initiate removal proceedings against her...

Sharon Keller on the dock

Posted on August 19, 2009
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller was forcefully questioned yesterday about the details of her decision not to accept Michael Richard's last minute appeal on the night of his execution. This exchange from the Austin Statesman gets down to the crux of the issue:Keller testified that she did not believe the request fell under the court's rules because it was an administrative matter ? a question about whether the clerk's office should stay open late ? and not a substantive question relating to the merits of Richard's case...

Natapoff launches 'Snitching Blog'

Posted on August 19, 2009
I'm pleased to learn that one of my favorite thinkers on criminal justice topics - Loyola (CA) law prof Alexandra Natapoff - has launched the "Snitching Blog" to focus on issues surrounding confidential informants (something I've encouraged her to do for at least the last three years!)...

'Can these puppets prevent juvenile crime?'

Posted on August 19, 2009
The title of this post is the headline of an interesting item from Change.org's Criminal Justice Blog, where Matt Kelley points to:a video of a talk by Theodore Beauchaine, a psychology professor at the University of Washington, who says that brain science can predict criminal activity in some kids and should be a factor in targeting treatment...

Not soon enough: Bexar probation director out in January

Posted on August 18, 2009
Bexar probation director Bill Fitzgerald has announced he'll resign his post in January, though he assured the SA Express-News that "his resignation has nothing to do with the no-confidence vote by the misdemeanor judges or the bribery investigation, or multiple wrongful termination lawsuits by former employees...

Punitive approach to economic crimes only makes problems worse

Posted on August 18, 2009
Readers may be interested in this press release (pdf) from DPS describing new traffic laws that take effect on September 1.The release mentions an important bill that I'd somehow completely missed during the legislative session - HB 2012 by Vaught - which is likely to negatively impact counties' jail and indigent defense costs...

A conservative critique of 'socialism' in the justice system

Posted on August 18, 2009
Thanks to Murray for turning me on to Houston criminal defense attorney Troy McKinney's new blog, Law-4-Lunch, which is presently topped off with this exceptional post titled "The Socialism of Personal Accountability." Here's a notable excerpt:We are becoming a socialist state when it comes to personal accountability...

Teen drug court in Beaumont diverts youth from TYC

Posted on August 18, 2009
I was interested to learn that Jefferson County (Beaumont) is using a drug court model in juvenile court, according to KBMT-TV:Jefferson County's new Teen Drug Court [is] sponsored by the judges who operate the county's family court program.It pairs kids with mentors and checks on their progress on a weekly basis...

Sharon Keller misconduct trial more about judicial activism than the death penalty

Posted on August 17, 2009
Presiding Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Sharon Keller's ethics trial begins today in San Antonio. Here are previews from the Austin Statesman and the SA Express News.Unfortunately, this hearing is being portrayed by both sides of the capital punishment debate as being primarily about the death penalty, though at least prosecutors are keeping their eye on the ball...

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